The Blood of a Poet, Orpheus, & The Testament of Orpheus

The Blood of a Poet felt just like early Buñuel, but not as crazy. Slightly more structured. Not as good either. I was somewhat disappointed.

Orpheus, on the other hand, was a great retelling of the mythology, with a modern setting, and a similar feel to Cocteau's brilliant Beauty and the Beast. Not as dreamlike, but outstanding nonetheless, with the trial and mirror sequences well worth watching. At least one of the trilogy works well for someone without a desire to see navel gazing or be confused.

The Testament of Orpheus is all about the power of movies and is basically Cocteau messing with the audience for a while. It works vastly better than Blood of a Poet though, mainly because Cocteau at the end of his career was better than Cocteau at the beginning. I love that Criterion packaged the three films together though. The two Orpheus films clearly match well, given similar characters and even sharing a scene, but the first one actually is like a prototype of Testament. Cocteau was a genius, but it's always interesting to watch that talent develop. Even if it ends up with a bunch of wankery.