BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
La Belle Et La Bete

Haunting filming of Beaumont's fairy tale. A beautiful young woman agrees to gives herself to a wretched Beast in order to save her father. The film features an exceptional surreal photographic style that Cocteau had previously employed in The Blood of Poet and would later employ in Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus. Cocteau stated that the intent was to show unreality in realistic terms.

“A fairy tale for children and intelligent adults.” —Holt’s Foreign Film Guide .

Producer; Andre Paulve. Director; Jean Cocteau . Script; Jean Cocteau. Photo; Henri Alekan. Music; Georges Auric. Cast; Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mlla Parely, Michel Auclair, Marcel Andre Nane Germon.

France 1946 96 minutes. Subtitled.
ISBN 1-55881-257-1
$19.95

ORPHEUS
Orphee

Cocteau transposes the legend of Orpheus to a modern Parisian setting complete with a mystical trip through the looking glass into the underworld.

"Jean Cocteau's Orpheus is the masterpiece of magical filmaking. Through a narrative treatment of the legend of Orpheus in a modern Parisian setting, it is as inventive and enigmatic as a dream. Orpheus wants to get beyond the limits of human experience, he wants to reach the unknowable -- the mystery beyond mortality. Jean Marais is ideally cast as the successful, popular poet who is envied by the younger poets; his conflicts, his desire to renew himself, his feverish listening for signals from the source of mystery, are the substance of the film. Dark, troubled passionate Maria Casares is his Death; attended by her oaring motorcyclists -- the hooded messengers of death -- she is mystery incarnate." --Pauline Kael

“Probably Cocteau's finest film, this is a perfect marriage between Greek legend and his own personal mythology...effectively elaborating the theme of the poet caught between the worlds of the real and the imaginary. This witty and haunting film can be considered the centrepiece of Cocteau's entire oeuvre, and of his Orphic trilogy (it comes between The Blood Of The Poet and The Testament Of Orpheus), in particular.” —Holt’s Foreign Film Guide

Directed by Jean Cocteau. Script; Jean Cocteau. Photo; Nicolas Hayer . Music; Georges Auric. Cast; Jean Marais, Francois Pirier, Maria Casaris, Marie Dia, Edouard Dermithe, Juliette Greco

FRANCE 1949. 96 minutes. Subtitled..
ISBN 1-55881-258-X
$19.95.

THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS
Le Testament D'Orphée

Cocteau's last film was this intense exploration of his life and work, As he explains, "I will present a striptease In which I shed my body to expose my soul". Cocteau wanders through a surreal dreamscape peopled by his friends (Charles Aznavour, Yul Brynner, Pablo Picasso, Brigitte Bardot) and characters from his films including The Princess, Heurtebise, and Cégeste from Orpheus.

“Made on a shoestring, Cocteau's valedictory film is a self-indulgent, self-mocking self-portrait. mystifying but intriguing to those who have no previous knowledge of his films, plays, poems and novels, fascinating and illuminating to those who have. Yet the whole of his unique oeuvre is allusive and personal. As he says, 'A film, whatever it may be, is always its director's portrait'. In this film, he is penetrated by a sword, but pops up from his grave uttering the words, 'A poet can never die'. Cocteau's body died in 1963, but his art lives on.”—Holt’s Foreign Film Guide

Directed by Jean Cocteau. Script; Jean Cocteau. Photo; Roland Pointoizeau. Music; Georges Auric. Cast; Jean Cocteau, Edouard Dermithe, Maria Casarès, François Périer, Jean Marais, Jean-Pierre Léaud,

FRANCE 1959 83 minutes. Subtitled..
ISBN 1-55881-259-8
$19.95

BLOOD OF A POET

Cocteau's sincere and personal effort to visualise the poet's inner self. A bewildering collection of ideas and images; darkness, decadence and death juxtaposed with visions of beauty and love. Cocteau would later claim that this, his first film, was the only one he had ever had complete control over.

France 1930.78 minutes. Subtitled.

ISBN 1-55881-225-5
Currently out of print.