Directed by:
Jean CocteauCinematography:
Christian MatrasComposer:
Georges AuricCast:
Edwige Feuillère, Jean Marais, Jean Debucourt, Yves Massard, Martine de Breteuil, Yvonne de Bray, Maurice Nasil, Edouard Dermithe, Guy Favières (more)Plots(1)
Pauline Kael has characterized Jean Cocteau's The Eagle with Two Heads (L'aigle a deux tetes) as an inversion of Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946). On surface, this is true: In Beauty, the heroine awakens the handsome, good man lurking within the beast, while in Eagle it is the woman who is aroused from her spell by the hero. The woman is a queen (Edwidge Feuillere) who is despised by the populace; the man is a poet (Cocteau regular Jean Marais), who has come to assassinate her. By breaking the evil influence holding her, the poet (who looks just like the queen's late husband) restores the queen to her innate goodness, and the two fall in love. Cocteau adapted The Eagle with Two Heads from his own stage play, which would later be staged on videotape by Michelangelo Antonioni as Il Mistero di Oberwald (1980). (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Edwige Feuillère
France
Best movies:
L'Idiot (1946)
When a Woman Meddles (1957)
Love Is My Profession (1958)
Jean Marais
France
Best movies:
Fantomas (1964)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1954)
Fantomas Strikes Back (1965)
Jean Debucourt
France
Best movies:
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Maigret Sets a Trap (1958)
Fearless Little Soldier (1952)
Yves Massard
German Empire
Best movies:
Ruy Blas (1948)
Children of Mata Hari (1970)
Rain (1970)
Martine de Breteuil
France
Best movies:
The Troops of St. Tropez (1964)
Yoyo (1965)
Agent 38-24-36 (1964)
Yvonne de Bray
France
Best movies:
Love Eternal (1943)
Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952)
The Eagle with Two Heads (1948)
Maurice Nasil
Algeria
Best movies:
Le Glaive et la balance (1963)
The Verdict (1974)
To Die of Love (1971)
Edouard Dermithe
Italy
Best movies:
Orpheus (1950)
The Testament of Orpheus (1960)
The Eagle with Two Heads (1948)
Guy Favières
France
Best movies:
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954)
Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
Jacques Varennes
France
Best movies:
Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954)
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Orpheus (1950)
Roger Vincent
France
Best movies:
The Knight of the Night (1954)
Les Misérables (1934) (series)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1954)
Victor Tabournot
Best movies:
Orpheus (1950)
Adorable Sinner (1959)
Napoleon (1955)
Jacqueline Marbaux
France
Best movies:
Die schöne Lügnerin (1959)
Casque d'Or (1952)
Adorable Sinner (1959)
Marguerite de Morlaye
France
Best movies:
Just Out (1949)
Six Hours to Lose (1947)
The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (1945)