Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

See what’s playing
Testament of Orpheus
Testament of Orpheus
8.2
/10
2,083 Ratings

TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS

Le testament d'Orphée ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi

Directed by Jean Cocteau
France, 1960
Fantasy, Avant-Garde

Synopsis

An 18th century poet travels through time in search of divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he has a series of enigmatic encounters with symbolic phantoms with whom he muses about the nature of art and his own career. Ultimately, the poet strives to achieve his rebirth as a celestial being.

Synopsis

An 18th century poet travels through time in search of divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he has a series of enigmatic encounters with symbolic phantoms with whom he muses about the nature of art and his own career. Ultimately, the poet strives to achieve his rebirth as a celestial being.

Our take

Testament of Orpheus is Jean Cocteau’s final film and most expansive artistic statement. Answering nearly all of the images and ideas on creation and mortality found in Blood of a Poet, the French polymath concludes both his art and his life with this luminous and lively work of surrealism.