Scripted by Jean Cocteau, this variation on the Tristan and Isolde legend has a modern setting but because it's one of those 40s French films which avoid all mention of the German occupation, has an eerie out-of-time fairytale quality.
Marais and Sologne are almost identical androgynous lovers, whose chiseled blonde looks suggest why this film could have appealed to Cocteau's gay followers as well as fans of the Nazi Aryan Ideal. A malevolent dwarf makes things rough for the leads in a castle on the coast, but they find it impossible to live apart. With its poisonous love potions, haunted characters and evocative emoting, this captures the sinister as well as the charming side of the myth.