Some neat visuals, a surreal mood. The story: nonsense.

Cocteau creates his own mythology for his own purposes. Defies comparison with anything else in cinema.

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Jean Cocteau cleverly subverts the traditional tale by ingraining within it aspects of the modern french zeitgeist, creating his own sort of french mythos. Cocteau's craftsmanship of the frame, and keen sense of how to create interesting images results in a piece that is more than the sum of its parts. He uses very simple film techniques to display otherworldly dimensions, yet they are convincing. Cocteau the poet recognizes that the real magic of words lay in the performance and not on paper.

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# 200

Pompous, pretentious and rather silly.

I liked it, even though I'm not too sure why. There's a dreamlike quality to much of the movie that sucks you in.

Bogged down by unnecessary seriousness. The actors don't help anything, with most of them hamming it up like crazy, especially Jean Marais. Some good ideas here, but they're trapped in a stupid movie. Also, Cocteau kind of seems like a major egomaniac.

Strange little fantasy. Death comes in riding motorcycles to take you to Hades. Oooooooooooooooookay...

Cocteau revives and rearranges an ancient myth in a setting of modern-day France, and maintains throughout a serious, reverential, poetic feeling for fantasy (Death rides in a Rolls Royce under the escort of two black-leather motorcyclists, mirrors are gateways to the Underworld), even if, at times, his style indulges in ostentatious and transparent trickery.

Not that bad. Some serious weird shit went down but then again, what else would you expect from the French?

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