In this case, the land of fantasy is the concrete world of the poet’s imagination. A poet who can only be Jean Cocteau, who plays the rôle of the poet in the film. He did that twice before , namely in the films Le Sang d’un poète (1930) and Orphée (1950). These are all films in which he provided a visual form for his fascination with poetry; a form in which dream and reality are mixed. He brought the world of Surreal painting and modern poetry into contact with the glamour world of film. And poetry is, as Jacques Rivette remarked, the rediscovery of simplicity. According to Cocteau himself, the film has neither head nor tail, but a soul. A film by a fantast who knows he is going to die, but hasn’t had enough of the absurdity of life.
