Orphée -- July 15, 2026

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Thanks to TCM online, I finally got to see Jean Cocteau's Orphée. François Périer as the chauffeur, Heurtebise, gave a nice, understated performance, full of longing for Eurydice. Almost everything in the upper world and the underworld seemed mundane. Orphée's passage into the underworld was beautiful and troubling. And then the trial looked like a trial in the upper world, but the judges didn't have robes, hats or wigs. I was not impressed by the passing through the mirror effects, but I would watch it again.

Jean Cocteau 125 -- July 5, 2014

Poet, playwright, actor, novelist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau was born 125 years ago, on 05-July-1889.  He knew all the avant-garde writers, composers and artists of the first half of the Twentieth Century.  He denied that he was a surrealist.  He made La Belle et la Bête, which everyone loves, and the Orpheus trilogy, which not everyone loves.  During World War One, he drove ambulances for the Red Cross.  During World War Two, he managed to live through the German occupation in Paris. 

I remember reading about "Le Sang d'un poète" in a book about great movies long before I got to see it.  I marveled over the photos.