Book Description
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.
About the Author
Photographer Lucien Clergue has had one-man exhibitions of his work worldwide, and his photographs are included in many major museums. He is the founder of the annual Festival of Photography in Arles, and has published over a dozen books in his native France.
Jean Cocteau and the Testament of Orpheus FROM THE PUBLISHER
Jean Cocteau and the Testament of Orpheus is a collaboration between still photography and cinema. During the making of the film Le Testament d'Orphee, legendary photographer and close friend to Cocteau, photographer Lucien Clergue, was on hand to document the filming. In the words of Cocteau, "You are free to do as you please, I look forward to being surprised by your photos. They will reveal something different from my film." As David Sweet writes in his essay, "Clergue's isolated images...capture something either paradigmatic or unexpected in the work itself. They pierce to the heart of the work yet restore the milieu from which it emerged; thus, they are essential and tangential, providing windows onto the production process, as well as mirrors of the poet's cinematic intentions."
Art & Photography
Book Info
