Jean Cocteau and the Testament of Orpheus: The Photographs by Lucien Clergue
Essay by David LeHardy Sweet
square 8vo. pp. 144. profusely illustrated in b/w. hardcover. dw. (near fine). [New York]: Viking Studio, [2001].
ISBN-10: 0670892580 / ISBN-13: 9780670892587
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French director, poet, novelist, dramatist, and illustrator Jean Cocteau is known for being one of the most versatile and diversely talented artists of the twentieth century. Testament of Orpheus is a photographic journal and tribute to Cocteau's final film of the same name. Lucien Clergue was a close friend of Cocteau's and a photographer on the set of the film. He captures the essential scenes and symbols from the movie and provides a moving portrait of the poet as well as an intriguing elaboration on Cocteau's cinema as well as on surrealism and the Myth of Orpheus.