Testament of Orpheus

Testament of Orpheus (French: Le testament d'Orphée) is a 1960 black-and-white film with a few seconds of color film spliced in. Directed by and starring Jean Cocteau, who plays himself as an 18th-century poet, the film includes cameo appearances by Pablo Picasso, Jean Marais, Charles Aznavour, Jean-Pierre Leaud and Yul Brynner.[1] It is considered the final part of the Orphic Trilogy, following The Blood of a Poet (1930) and Orphée (1950).

The Testament of Orpheus
DVD cover
Directed by	Jean Cocteau
Produced by	Jean Thuillier
Written by	Jean Cocteau
Starring	Jean Cocteau Édouard Dermit Henri Crémieux María Casares
Music by	Georges Auric George Frideric Handel Martial Solal
Edited by	Marie-Josephe Yoyotte
Release date	18 February 1960 (1960-02-18)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

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.[2] 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".[3]

The New York Times calls 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".[1]