Eagle W/2 Heads (1948)

Editor's Note Jean Cocteau's film adaptation of his own smash hit play L'AIGLE À DEUX TÊTES, stars the impeccably handsome Cocteau regular Jean Marais as Stanislas, a young poet and anarchist set off on an antimonarchist plot to kill the beautiful and mysterious widow queen, Feuillere. As the queen is throwing a ball celebrating the 10th anniversary of her husband's assassination (on their wedding day) Stanislas, chased by dogs and wounded by police gunfire, penetrates the castle and confronts the queen. She is shocked by Stanislas uncanny resemblance to her dead husband, and the two fall instantly in passionate if complicated love. As Stanislas's mission to assassinate the queen transmogrifies into a scheme to rescue her from her morbid state of mourning and subordination to the secret evil powers of the state, the two lovers forge a fatal devotion to each other. Cocteau's poetic vision charges the thrilling plot, elegant setting, and eccentric characters with his own unique sensibility of intertwined sexuality, fatality, and voyeurism. While less surreal than his previous films, BLOOD OF A POET and ORPHEUS, THE EAGLE HAS TWO HEADS radiates with the author's unmistakable inventiveness, presenting a classic tale of tragic love through the prism of pure cinematic poetry.

	Jean Marais
	Yvonne de Bray
	Jean Debucourt
	Edwige Feuillere
	Jean Cocteau - Director

In Jean Cocteau's THE EAGLE HAS TWO HEADS, an anarchist cannot carry out his mission to kill the queen when love gets in the way. This romantic melodrama is based on Cocteau's successful stage play.