On the face of it, this film represents six reels of scraped together footage from off the cutting room floor. A more vague or hopeless mess could not have resulted.
The Blood of a Poet(Le Sang d'un poète)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 1932
55m
Director Jean Cocteau
Starring Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazac
Genre Fantasy
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
The first part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy. Told in four episodes, an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios. The surreal film explores the relationships between artists, dreams, and reality.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Despite its flaws, the film remains a fascinating souvenir of a vanished avant-garde.
Cocteau has produced a bizarre, interesting although at times tedious movie.
As a groundbreaking examination of the reality-bending potential of film, it's of a piece with Un Chien Andalou and L'Age D'Or.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Few drug-induced visions, however, can match the playful ingenuity of this freewheeling assault on the senses, which eschews conventional narrative in favor of one mesmerizingly bizarre image after another.
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
The first time you see this film, you're likely to find it silly, autoerotic, static, absurd, and you may feel cheated after having heard so much about it. But though it may seem to have no depth, you're not likely to forget it -- it has a suggestiveness unlike any other film.
Users who liked this film also liked
Solaris
(Солярис)
A psychologist must keep his mind intact as he navigates a space station full of strange visions.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1972
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
- Genre Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Un Chien Andalou
(Un chien andalou)
A classic avant-garde surrealist film from the cooperation of director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dali.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1929
- Director Luis Buñuel
- Cast Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Robert Hommet, Marval
- Genre Fantasy, Horror
- Available on Fandor Amazon Channel, FlixFling, Fandor, Tubi TV
Au Hasard Balthazar
(Au hasard Balthazar)
In the French countryside, donkey Balthazar experiences different sides of human nature as he is passed from owner to owner.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Sweden • 1966
- Director Robert Bresson
- Cast Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Philippe Asselin, Pierre Klossowski
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video
Possession
Helen wants a divorce, but as her behavior grows more alarming, a sinister force is found to be operating on her.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, West Germany • 1981
- Director Andrzej Żuławski
- Cast Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering
- Genre Horror
- Available on Shudder, Shudder Amazon Channel, AMC+ Amazon Channel, Metrograph, Shudder Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy, Hoopla
Cat People
A newlywed fears she is cursed to transform into a wild panther if she consummates her marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States • 1942
- Director Jacques Tourneur
- Cast Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Henrietta Burnside
- Genre Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
The Crucified Lovers
(近松物語)
The tortured heart behind the cultivated image.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1954
- Director Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyōko Kagawa, Eitarō Shindō, Eitarō Ozawa, Yôko Minamida, Haruo Tanaka
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Plex, Plex Channel
Testament of Orpheus
(Le Testament d'Orphée)
Jean Cocteau's poetic allegory focuses on the experiences of a poet outside of time and reality.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1960
- Director Jean Cocteau
- Cast Jean Cocteau, Edouard Dermithe, Henri Crémieux, François Périer, Claudine Auger, Françoise Arnoul
- Genre Drama, Fantasy
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Plex, Plex Channel
The Night of Varennes
(La Nuit de Varennes)
A group of passengers in a stagecoach find themselves caught up in the events of the French Revolution.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 1982
- Director Ettore Scola
- Cast Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcello Mastroianni, Hanna Schygulla, Harvey Keitel, Jean-Claude Brialy, Andréa Ferréol
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Criterion Channel
Van Gogh: Painted with Words
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2010
- Director Andrew Hutton
- Cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Parker, Aidan McArdle, Christopher Good, Rowena Cooper, Daniel Weyman
- Genre Drama, Documentary
- Available on BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel, Britbox Apple TV Channel
Klaus
A simple act of kindness always sparks another, even in a frozen, faraway place.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain • 2019
- Director Sergio Pablos
- Cast Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Joan Cusack, Norm Macdonald, Will Sasso
- Genre Animation, Family, Adventure, Comedy
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Midsommar
Let the festivities begin.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States, Sweden • 2019
- Director Ari Aster
- Cast Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Vilhelm Blomgren, Isabelle Grill
- Genre Horror, Drama, Mystery
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Kanopy