Orpheus, France, 1949, 112 min. Starring Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa. Directed by Jean Cocteau. Multi-faceted French artiste Cocteau puts his own spin on the Greek myth of Orpheus by positing the musician as a poet living in contemporary Paris who meets and becomes obsessed with a woman who is in fact the embodiment of Death. Soon events lead to his having to choose between her and his wife Eurydice. As with his earlier films, The Blood of a Poet and Beauty and the Beast, Cocteau brings a lyricism and magical quality to his story with remarkable simplicity, relying on little more than uncomplicated visual tricks and his own penchant for symbolism and boundless imagination.