''Testament of Orpheus'' (french: Le testament d'Orphée) is a 1960

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

film with a few seconds of color film spliced in. Directed by and starring

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

, who plays himself as an 18th-century poet, the film includes cameo appearances by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Jean Marais Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998), known professionally as Jean Marais (), was a French actor, film director, theatre director, painter, sculptor, visual artist, writer and photographer. He performed in over 100 f ...

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

, Jean-Pierre Leaud, and

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (russian: link=no, Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in th ...

. It is considered the final part of ''

The Orphic Trilogy ''The Orphic Trilogy'' is a series of three French films written and directed by Jean Cocteau: * ''The Blood of a Poet'', or ''Le sang d'un poète'', 1930 * ''Orpheus'', or ''Orphée'' (also the title used in the UK), 1950 * ''Testament of Orpheu ...

'', following '' The Blood of a Poet'' (1930) and '' Orphée'' (1950). One critic described it as a "wry, self-conscious re-examination of a lifetime's obsessions" with Cocteau placing himself at the center of the mythological and fictional world he spun throughout his books, films, plays and paintings. The film includes numerous instances of "double takes", including one scene where Cocteau, walking past himself, looks back to see himself in what was described by one scholar as "a retrospective on the Cocteau ''œuvre''". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called it "self-serving", noting that the pretension of the film was certainly intended by Cocteau as his last statement made on film: "as much a long-winded self-analysis as an extraordinary succession of visually arresting images". Picasso had introduced Cocteau to the photographer

Lucien Clergue Lucien Clergue (; 14 August 1934 – 15 November 2014) was a French photographer. He was Chairman of the Academy of Fine Arts, Paris for 2013. Biography Lucien Clergue was born in Arles, France. At the age of 7 he began learning to play the ...

who was brought in to photo-document the film's production. His black-and-white stills were published in 2001 as ''Jean Cocteau and The Testament of Orpheus''. Clergue, Lucien. ''Jean Cocteau and The Testament of Orpheus''. New York: Viking Studio, 2001 ISBN 0-670-89258-0

References

External links

* *
''Testament of Orpheus''
an essay by Jean Cocteau at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

French black-and-white films 1960s fantasy films French fantasy films 1960s French-language films Films directed by Jean Cocteau Orpheus Films scored by Georges Auric Films with screenplays by Jean Cocteau 1960s French films {{fantasy-film-stub