"This is a comprehensive, original and accessible account of all aspects of Jean Cocteau's work in the cinema. It is the first major study in English to appear for over forty years and casts new light on Cocteau's most celebrated films as well as those either neglected or little known." "This account provides new insights into Cocteau's cinematic project in the context of his entire oeuvre, with detailed analyses of individual films, notably Le Sang de'un poete and Orphee, and a thematic engagement with his work from a range of interdisciplinary approaches, including film history and theory, war and politics, authorship, collaboration (in particular with Jean Marais), the body in performance and gender and sexuality. The Cocteau that emerges is at once a materialist filmmaker and a visionary committed to realism in all its guises."--BOOK JACKET.