“Realising he would never get around to filming it himself, Jean Cocteau handed over to Franju the rights to his novel, characteristically adding that he would rather be betrayed by Franju than by anyone else. But the film does both men proud. Beautifully photographed with Franju's usual eye for the extravagant image, charmingly scored by Georges Auric, Thomas l'Imposteur is set in the confused phantasmagoria of World War I where fact and fiction were painfully intermingled: the Princess's ballroom, the trenches on the Northern front - these are the two poles between which Thomas plays out his short happy life.”