A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.
Direction
Cocteau's practical effects still feel illegally magical
Cinematography
The mirror sequence—shot through a vat of mercury
Acting
María Casares: Death as the hottest person in the room
Director
Jean Cocteau
Jean Marais
Orphée
François Périer
Heurtebise
María Casares
Death
Marie Déa
Eurydice
Henri Crémieux
Editor
Juliette Gréco
Aglaonice
Roger Blin
The Poet
Edouard Dermithe
Jacques Cégeste
André Carnège
Judge
Pierre Bertin
Commissioner
Jacques Varennes
Judge
Paul Amiot
Judge (uncredited)
Philippe Bordier
Young Man at Café des Poètes (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Cocteau filmed the underworld scenes in the ruins of Germany's Occupation-era studios, using bombed-out sets as accidental surrealism.
This was Cocteau's middle chapter in his Orphic Trilogy; he claimed he made it to process his own opium addiction and complicated feelings about his muse/lover, Jean Marais.
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