Jean Marais is a legend. We can all remember how he played Jean Cocteau´s heroes : Terrible Parents, The Double-Headed Eagle, Orpheus, Beauty and the Beast or else jumping onto a galloping horse in one of his cloak-and-dagger films which delighted us as children. Today, the eternal playboy of French cinema has reached the venerable age of 81. For his birthday, Jean-Claude Brialy threw a ´surprise´ party for him at the ´Theatre des Bouffes Parisiens´ where all Paris´s most celebrated artists came to tell Jean Marais of their admiration and love. In making a film about him, we tried to get to know this ´exceptional´ man better, who dares to claim he is happy to live. It is this remarkable destiny which Jean Marais recounts to us, by turns funny and tender.

A film by Jean-Christophe Rosé and Carole Weisweiller
Interviews conducted by Carole Weisweiller

A Canal + and Cie des Phares et Balises co-production
With the participation of the Centre National de la Cinématographie and Canal + Belgium

© Canal + et la Cie des Phares et Balises 1995