Jean Marais - Documentaire de Armand Isnard

An exceptional portrait of one of the last living legends of French cinema, rich in film excerpts: The Blood of the Poet – Beauty and the Beast – The Eagle Has Two Heads – Le Capitan – Fantomas – The Mysteries of Paris – Cocteau at the Villa Santo Sospir – The Eternal Sigh, and in testimonials where Jean Marais left his mark. Jean Marais, born in Cherbourg on December 11, 1913, joined Jean Cocteau on November 8, 1998. Soon after, in 2008 – a strange coincidence – we commemorated the tenth anniversary of the death of the man who, by his own admission, didn't care about wealth, but who nevertheless remains one of the most beloved artists of the public. Jean Marais was a man of heart, humble, kind, generous, and a star of whom we most often know only his exceptionally handsome features, athletic grace, sense of honor, and extraordinary energy. Jean Marais tells his story, speaking of his art, his magnificent career, but also of his beloved mother, whom he liked to call "God's bride," of his tumultuous childhood, his deepest desires, the war, his dashed hopes, his love for the theater, and his successes. He also speaks of his friends, for Jean Marais, this demigod with the air of a dreamy adolescent, only ever worked with those he loved: Yvonne de Bray, Christian Bérard, Charles Dullin, Colette, Picasso, and so many others. These figures are also evoked in this program, and the spotlight, however powerful, failed to illuminate their human qualities. Other stars, forever frozen in legend. Of course, among these figures, Jean Cocteau occupies a special place. As we know, it was he who gave the ardent, and at the time "distressed," young man the love he needed to live. An immense, forever unquenched thirst for love. A dramatic break whose wound the great actor would feel until the very end, "while pretending to live." Jean Marais, like Bourvil and Louis de Funès, is for many of us a friend who has never left us. A friend we love for his loyalty, sincerity, and honesty. But a friend we know very little about, in truth. For, far from being a one-man man, the romantic hero of "The Eagle Has Two Heads" discreetly concealed his private life. Who knows, for example, that he almost married Mila Parely, that in the 1960s he adopted a child named Serge, and that he finished the war in General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division, earning him the Croix de Guerre? This is a portrait of one of the most talented artists of our time, retracing the fabulous life of a brilliant entertainer whose vocation was to perform. It reveals the personality of an extraordinary individual, with heightened sensitivity, both powerful and fragile, possessing unforgettable human qualities.