FILM | Jean Cocteau: The Orphic Trilogy | Le Testament d'Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus)

Jean Cocteau: The Orphic Trilogy
July 5–26
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) was a poet, filmmaker, artist, journalist, dramatist, and designer, as well as a celebrity and provocateur. He was a creative force at the center of the Parisian avant-garde from before World War I, through the surrealist 1920s and 30s, and beyond. His films exemplify the surrealist movement in France. They are dizzy with fantasy, mythology, melodrama, and unhinged experimentation. Nowhere is this more true than in his so-called Orphic Trilogy—three films inspired by the figure of Orpheus, the poet and musician of ancient mythology. For today’s viewer, the trilogy opens doors to Cocteau’s incomparable poetic consciousness.

Le Testament d'Orphée (The Testament of Orpheus)
Jean Cocteau, 1959, 80 min.
Thursdays, July 17 and 24, 7 p.m.
Saturdays, July 19, 2:30 p.m, and July 26, 3 p.m.
In the film that completes the cycle, Cocteau plays an 18th-century poet who travels in time. This is a wry, self-deprecating work, with the 70-year-old poet portraying his dreams, his friends and lovers, and fictional characters. The cast includes Pablo Picasso, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jean Marais, and Yul Brynner. Cocteau’s final film is an open coda to a unique career.

Tickets are available at the museum (no surcharge) or through http://www.sfmoma.org/tickets (surcharge applies).

$5 general; free for SFMOMA members or with museum admission (requires a free ticket, which can be picked up in the Haas Atrium). Double features: films offered on the same date are included in one ticket.