The Eternal Return

The legend of Tristan and Isolde is carried here into France in the nineteen forties. The lovers are called Patrice and Nathalie, and what begins between them starts with a drink nobody chose to give them and cannot be taken back. Against them stands a malevolent dwarf named Achille. Jean Cocteau wrote the story and the dialogue, laid out the editing plan and picked both the cast and the director; Jean Delannoy shot it. The film was made in occupied France and caused an argument the moment it opened. It was accused of edging towards Nazi racial aesthetics with its blond leads and its dwarf villain, and in Britain it was written off as Teutonic mysticism. Set against that, Jean Marais went on to fight against Nazi Germany. Both things are true at once, and the film itself was a large commercial success.