Jean Cocteau Articles

  Lest you go completely nuts following all that teen drama (A Summer Place) and singing (Grease) this evening on Turner Classic Movies, you'll get direct divine intervention by way of Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927), a silent movie about the life of Jesus. The King of Kings will offer you so much solace, in fact, there's a good chance you'll fall [...]

Edouard Dhermitte, Jean Cocteau in The Testament of Orpheus Oh my, how poets suffer! It seems that the Orpheus characters, Death (Maria Casarès — who did not age well; she actually resembles Vampira from Plan 9 from Outer Space) and Heurtebise (François Périer), resent being conjured by the magic of a poet, and want to try Cocteau for his sins. Of course, his sin is [...]

Le Testament d'Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi! / The Testament of Orpheus (1960) Direction and screenplay: Jean Cocteau Cast: Jean Cocteau, María Casares, François Périer, Henri Crémieux, Edouard Dhermitte, Alice Heyliger, Jean Marais, Françoise Christophe, Claudine Auger, Charles Aznavour, Lucia Bosé, Yul Brynner, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Daniel Gélin, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean-Claude Petit, Pablo Picasso, Jacqueline Roque, Françoise Sagan, Annette Vadim, Brigitte Bardot, Roger [...]