Jean Cocteau and the Testament of Orpheus Book

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."