cocteu is asurrealist or not?

Dali loved Cocteau and they hung together often. Dali said Cocteau used his, Dali's own method of "Critcal Paranoia" when fashioning his films. Remember the hydocephalic in the act of milking his cranial harp is without compare.

Nothing exists more beautifully than nothing.

The term surrealism has become totally subjective. Somewhere (around the time of Bunuel) it branched off from its Oxford Dictionary definition and became a term that described a movement. In cinema, the Surrealist movement (note the capital letter 'S') was commandeered by the likes of Bunuel, but we must remind ourselves that Bunuel was only one interpretation of surrealism (lowercase 's').

Going back to the dictionary definition, surrealism is "the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery." Note the word "imagery". It doesn't necessarily apply to bizarre, nonsensical plot twists (like Chien Andalou or Age d'Or). Surrealism should be recognized as a visual style foremost.

With that said, I don't think anyone (Cocteau included) will deny that the imagery in this movie is utterly out of this world: the photonegative car ride to Death's house, the reverse-action shots of people rising from the dead, and that phantasmagoric scene of climbing the walls en route to Hades. That's how I (and the dictionary) define surrealism. In that respect, Tim Burton is a surrealist; Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a surrealist; and yes, even the movie The Crow is a great surrealist work.

As others have pointed out, the plot of Orphée is highly structured and logical, unlike the work of Bunuel which seems at times purely random. But I don't think an acid-trip plot is a requirement. It just happened to be popular amongst the Surrealists. I can see how they would hate Cocteau for going against the grain (which he did brilliantly). Maybe the theme of Orphee's ostracism from the Cafe des Poets is Cocteau's depiction of how he himself was not accepted by the "hip crowd".