Steineded How sad is this?

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Men_Moi This motion picture is remarkable, in it's grandest statement. I won't say much, although if you look into a particular character in the opening sequence, "Professor Langevin" he is a real person in history. A French Physicist, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_LangevinMonsieur Langevin is what I name, the French "Einstein". But, in my opinion far more complex and advanced lifeform. If you, do a google search for "Langevin & Einstein" in google images, you can find a famous photo where the two minds collided.So, what is the mystery behind this character? Or rather the secret? It is very groundbreaking, Jean Cocteau's genuine testament on distorting reality, not here in the present day, but rather since in the movie he is a time traveler, the Future, where the Professor awakens from his dream. He calls it a magic bullet. And that is what it is...This is one of cinema's finest magical pieces, in that there's a mysterious distortion in reality, in the Future. Look into it, you may think that, all this are just assumptions, but, remember Langevin is a real human like you and me.So, what we believe as surreal, may not be actually surreal at all, rather the opposite, a genuine reality that happened to be in a theatrical production, a fantasy. Being that, is why we call it surreal. I would say, Cocteau's surrealism is heightened best in this masterpiece.Enjoy.

MartinHafer My summary is NOT meant to be sarcasm but an accurate description of what I saw in "Testament of Orpheus". It really does play a lot like a home movie of Cocteau's--complete with his friends making guest appearances. A few of the more notable ones are Jean Pierre Leaud, Pablo Picasso and Yul Brynner. As for the plot, it's really hard to describe and it is VERY freaky. It's sort of like a combination of a dream, the life of Cocteau, time travel and Greek mythology all rolled into one very strange film. If you try to make sense of all this, it will probably make your head explode--and it seems pretty clear that Cocteau had no intention of making the film understandable or doing a traditional narrative. Because it is essential a vanity project and an art film, I really cannot rate it. However, I think I'm very safe in saying that the film probably holds no interest to the average viewer but is something best seen by Cocteau-philes and lovers of the avant garde or surreal.As for me and my own opinion about the film's merits, I thought the project was very repetitive--though it did have a few moments of interesting introspection by Cocteau (who plays himself through the film). Sadly, though, despite his introspection, this is yet another Cocteau film in which he over-used slow-motion and rolled the film backwards again and again to achieve his artsy effects. Essentially, you see nothing new here in the way of techniques--having seen this is "Blood of a Poet" thirty years earlier. And, it does not have any sort of lasting appeal or a coherent story like "Orpheus" or "Beauty and the Beast" (his two masterpieces). Skipable if you ask me but a mildly (very mildly) interesting piece of performance art.

anthony_retford Cocteau must have been quite vain to make a film of his life and star in it. What a waste of time. Pretentious dialog, dated special effects, a penurious set, over-studious acting, and a score that just did not fit.The dialog was stilted and affected: it did not make any sense at all. Maybe it did to Cocteau but even that I doubt. It was full of enigmatic and obtuse references to who-knows-what? I suspect Cocteau just went overboard in tangential talk.The special effects were embarrassing but done with such gravity that you had to take a double-take at the vapid seriousness displayed.The only actor worth seeing was Yul Brynner. Cocteau should have stayed on the other side of the camera. He was not an actor just like Hitchcock was not. Cocteau should have learned from Hitchcock and just had a cameo role. It actually became painful watching him move deliberately from scene to scene. Not that the scenes made any sense except in his poor attempt at stitching his memories together.The main set was a ruined building built with large blocks but it had peoples' initials scored on their faces. So a scene that was intended to be somber or meaningful had scrawls of past visitors clearly visible. Whatever effect Cocteau intended was lost by the distractions. The set was messy too. Could not it have been cleaned and swept for heaven's sake? The acting in general was amateurish. There was no spontaneity, no joie de vivre; nothing to show Cocteau led anything but a pretty boring life. Surprising really when you know he was responsible for Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorite movies. But that had Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais and Josette Day in it.The music was empty and powerless. I have just watched the movie and cannot even remember any part of the score. If you are going to write a score for a movie make some of it memorable.

Alph-2 Jean Cocteau's final filmic flight of fantasy is very special indeed.Adopting the guise of a poet 'unstuck in time', Cocteau ranges over his life in the world of poetry. It's a phantasmorgorical whirl of imagery, with plenty of humour, pathos and an enormous, transcendent sense of wonder. There's also a trial sequence where the characters from his earlier success 'Orphee' try him for bringing them into existence !Some of Cocteau famous friends feature in brief cameos. Look out for Picasso and Bardot.You don't have to be a Cocteau fan to enjoy this movie. All you need is an interest in the nature of creativity and an enjoyment of poetry, symbolic art, and the wonderfully cinematic music of Georges Auric, who scored all Cocteau's major films.