Jean Cocteau's most famous films, La belle et la bete, and Orphee, are both cinematic dreams, featuring excursions into the realms of, respectively, the Fairy Tale and the Underworld. (Cocteau would refer to Death as his 'mistress'.) His novel Thomas l'imposteur appeared in 1923, and was based in part on his experiences as an ambulance driver on the Belgian front during the Great War. The story, set in France during the First World War, is about a group of wealthy Parisians who, led by Clémence de Bormes, a widowed princess, bring some action into their boring everyday lives by transforming her palace into a hospital and organising an ambulance convoy to the devastated countryside. Clémence and her daughter Henriette make the acquaintance of Thomas Guillaume de Fontenoy, an exalted young man (actually an "imposter" for two reasons: i) he wears a fake uniform and pretends to be the nephew of a famous general; ii) aged only 16 he would anyway be too young to fight) who offers to join the charity group as a helper. Very soon the realities of war intrude and whilst Clémence is gradually infatuated by Guillaume, Henriette falls in love with him.
Georges Franju's film of Thomas l'Imposteur came to the screen in 1965, two years after the death of Jean Cocteau. I feel that Cocteau would have approved. The voice-over narrative is supplied by Jean Marais, Cocteau's longtime collaborator and lover. The music is by Georges Auric, who composed also for La belle et la bete and for Orphee. As befits both its source material and its director, the film has a sense of unreality which is maintained even as it reaches its too realistic, tragic climax.
This is a war film from the tradition of a poetic cinema. See it if you can.
Georges Franju's film of Thomas l'Imposteur came to the screen in 1965, two years after the death of Jean Cocteau. I feel that Cocteau would have approved. The voice-over narrative is supplied by Jean Marais, Cocteau's longtime collaborator and lover. The music is by Georges Auric, who composed also for La belle et la bete and for Orphee. As befits both its source material and its director, the film has a sense of unreality which is maintained even as it reaches its too realistic, tragic climax.
This is a war film from the tradition of a poetic cinema. See it if you can.