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Bookmark this pageLe Testament d'Orphée (1959)
Director: Jean Cocteau
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Cocteau's last film is as personal and private as its title suggests, and it makes little sense for viewers unfamiliar with his other work. It's a wry, self-conscious re-examination of a lifetime's obsessions, with Cocteau playing himself at the centre of the mythology that he created in countless books, plays, films and paintings. This mythology yields a torrent of familiar characters, situations, effects and images, all of them quoted in a spirit of bewilderment and growing disillusionment: Cocteau finally disappears into his fictional world, leaving the real world to a noisy new generation. Nothing about the film is in the least seductive except for its fundamental openness; the tone veers between gentle irony and low-key pessimism. Cocteau admirers will probably find it very moving.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Jean Cocteau
Producer: Jean Thuillier
Cast: Jean Cocteau, Edouard Dermithe, Henri Crémieux, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Maria Casarès, François Périer, Jean Marais, Yul Brynner, Pablo Picasso, Lucia Bosè, Charles Aznavour, Françoise Sagan, Roger Vadim, Daniel Gélin full cast
Duration: 83 mins
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