The opposite of love
[...] In view of [Cocteau’s] enigmatic personal mythology it is clearly hopeless to attach "philosophical" meanings to the film. As with Marienbad, many interpretations nearly fit, but none really fits. Indeed, the idea of an "interpretation" which "explains" everything is itself a myth. Cocteau declares that "the film sets out to be nothing but the paraphrase of a Classical Greek myth" (though what are Heurtebise, Cègéste doing there?). The film "meaning" is, of course, as nebulous as the "meaning" of the Greek myth (which has never been agreed on). The film is not a message hidden in some obscure code, but simply, a story, a battery of emotional provocations. Enriching as they are, the interpretations mentioned above all have one limitation; they are too simple, they fail to take into account the fact that, far from symbolizing some vague abstraction or other, each character is torn between opposite desires. One can speak of themes, but not of symbols.
Cocteau sees three themes in the film. First, the successive death and counter-deaths that a poet must undergo in order to become, in Mallarmé’s words, "Tel qu’en lui-mme enfin l’éternité le change" ("such that at last eternity transforms him into himself"). Second, the theme of inspiration: "It is when Orphée renounces his own themes, and accepts messages from the outside, that everything is spoiled." The third theme is that of free-will. "Heurtebise", writes Cocteau, "is not at all an angel as he was in the play and as he is often said to be. He is a young dead soul, in the service of one of the innumerable satellites of death. He is yet scarcely tainted by death. On several occasions, he tries to forewarn people; for example, Orphée of the worthless of the radio messages, and Eurydice of the accident which will happen on the road. But the destiny which he attempts to frustrate by an act on free-will is a destiny initiated by the Princess. Hence the Superior Tribunal has no accusation to make against him...
The Princess and Heurtebise are not simply "Death"; they are further advanced in death than the living. Throughout the film, Heurtebise opposes the Princess. There is a continuity between the dead and the living – the glazier in the Zone believes he is still alive, his habits persist. The hotel of Marienbad is situated in a posh suburb of the Zone. The state of total death towards which we are all slowly drifting is inconceivable, perhaps it does not exist, perhaps there is always the shadow of a shadow of a shadow, recurring like decimals.
In a general way, death is the opposite of love; maybe it is the ultimate bureaucracy, a concentrationary universe, fate. In so far as the Princess rebels against it, we can call the film Countess Dracula Versus the Gestapo.

Raymond Durgnat
"Films & Filming", Vol. 10, October 1963