The Eagle with Two Heads

The Eagle with Two Heads (French: L'Aigle à deux têtes) is a 1948 French black-and-white drama written and directed by Jean Cocteau, adapted from his own play first staged in Paris in October 1946. The film kept the two principal performers of the theatre production, Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais.

Set largely inside a castle, the story unfolds over three days of impossible love between a widowed queen, still young and beautiful, and a vigorous young anarchist. The anarchist, who is the exact double of the late king, came to the castle to assassinate the queen but, hunted and wounded, was forced to take refuge there. Cocteau framed their encounter as the tragic meeting of a queen with the spirit of an anarchist and an anarchist with the spirit of a king. Jacques Varennes, Jean Debucourt and Silvia Monfort appear in supporting roles.