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Jean Cocteau (1889 - 1963)
Cocteau's uncle enrolled him in a private school when he was eleven, but he proved a poor student and was expelled in 1904. He ran away to Marseilles, where he lived amongst the bohemian denizens of the city's red light district before being caught by police and returned to his uncle and mother. Returning to school, he several times attempted and failed the graduation exam and finally quit. Soon after, at the age of seventeen, he began a brief love affair with the thirty-year old actress Madeleine Carlier. It was his only known love relationship with a woman. At nineteen Cocteau met the French tragic actor Edouard De Max, a wild and flamboyant figure who was Cocteau's mentor and lover for a time. Impressed by Cocteau's writings, De Max rented the Theatre Femina for one night to host a reading of the youth's poems. The crowd, though small, was warmly enthusiastic. Cocteau's fame quickly grew and he soon began moving through the various salons and social circles of Paris, his charm, talent, and wit combining to win him many friends and much admiration among the cultural elite. Indeed, like Mercedes de Acosta, Cocteau's circle of friends, lovers, and associates eventually came to read like a "who's who" (or Outcyclopedia) of the most famous gay and lesbian talents of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Louise Abbema, Berenice Abbott, Harold Acton, Kenneth Anger, Josephine Baker, Barbette, Sarah Bernhardt, Coco Chanel, Colette, Sergei Diaghilev, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Leonide Massine, Pablo Picasso, Raymond Radiguet, Erik Satie, Gertrude Stein, Igor Stravinsky, Alice B. Toklas - and the list went on almost unceasingly. Soon after his reading at the Theatre Femina, Cocteau published his first volume of poems, La Lampe d'Aladin, ("Aladdin's Lamp"). At twenty-one he published his second volume, Le Prince Frivole ("The Frivolous Prince"), and before long this came to be his nickname among his colleagues, owing to his own wit and humor. Cocteau discovered the ballet, a major influence on his work, and met Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned him to produce a series of posters. A meeting with Andre Gide, an idol of Cocteau's, proved less than inspiring. Gide was bothered by Cocteau's lack of seriousness and was also jealous of Cocteau's interest in his protégé, Marc Allegret. Eventually Gide moved to England, taking Allegret with him, and gave Cocteau the terse advice to "simplify his writing." In 1917 Cocteau met the young artist Pablo Picasso, and his description of the instant rapport the two had certainly indicates that Cocteau was in love with him. The two eventually went together to Rome to meet Diaghilev. Accepting Diaghilev's challenge to "surprise" him, Cocteau wrote the scenario for Parade, with sets designed by Picasso, costumes by Jean Hugo, and a score by Erik Satie. He later wrote the scenario for another ballet, La Dieu Bleu. Unfit for military duty, Cocteau worked as an ambulance driver during the First World War for a time. Two poems, Le discours du Grand Sommeil ("Discourse of the Great Sleep") and Le Cap de Bonne Esperance ("The Cape of Good Hope"), were inspired by his experiences on the front lines, as well as a 1923 novel, Thomas l'imposteur ("Thomas the Inpostor"), which was adapted as a film in 1965 by director Georges Franju. In 1918 Cocteau met and fell in love with Raymond Radiguet, a fifteen-year-old prodigy and aspiring poet. Under Cocteau's tutelage Radiguet talent and output flourished and the two became inseparable. Cocteau's own work took new directions with the completion of Le Potomak (1919) and his first novel, Le Grand Ecart (1923). Radiguet's death from typhoid in 1923 was a great blow to Cocteau, who smothered his sorrows by smoking opium, to which he became addicted. He also indulged in many meaningless sexual trysts, tricking with policemen in Paris and American sailors on the Cote d'Azur. His recovery and his grief combined to inspire his own adaptation of the story of Orpheus, Orphée. Cocteau could doubtless identify with the Greek hero's descent into the underworld to retrieve his dead Eurydice, having made his won descent into the underworld of drug abuse and addiction to retrieve what he had had with Radiguet. (Cocteau had many relapses and battled opium addiction the rest of his life.) The finished play was produced in 1928, with costumes designed by Coco Chanel. Despite attacks by Andre Breton, whose hatred of Cocteau was nearly as fanatical as his homophobia, the play was an enormous success. Cocteau followed Orphée with a novel, Les Enfants Terrible, allegedly written in just nineteen days, which became his first best-selling literary work and a classic of French literature. The 1930s saw Cocteau's move into film, with Le sang d'un Poet ("Blood of a Poet"). Originally commissioned to write a scenario for a cartoon, Cocteau eventually developed a live action surreal story, a "dream without sleep," using many innovative camera techniques to produce numerous visual effects and illusions. While the film's premiere sparked riots and was as viciously attacked by Breton as Orphée had been, the film came to be regarded as a classic of avant-garde film. He also wrote his first stage treatment of the Oedipus myth, La Machine Infernal ("The Infernal Machine") during this time. In 1937 he met Jean Marais, a photographers assistant and bit actor, whom he cast in the title role in his production of Oedipus Roi and then as Galahad in Les Chevaliers de la Table Rounde. Marais became the next of Cocteau's great loves, and Cocteau would help to launch Marais' career as one of France's greatest film stars and heart throbs. World War II proved a difficult time for Cocteau with regards to his work, as it did for all artists and writers who remained in Paris during the Nazi occupation. Paper and ink were rationed severely, and Cocteau's works were condemned as "degenerate" by the Vichy government. His friend Max Jacob, a Jew, who had introduced him to Raymond Radiguet, was taken away to the internment camps and never returned. Cocteau still managed to produce a few plays and two books. The end of the war and the liberation of France would soon bring a new proliferation of work from Cocteau. In 1946 Cocteau produced what many considered his best and most loved film, La Belle et la Bete, ("Beauty and the Beast"). Jean Marais was cast in the role of the Beast, and the themes of death, magic, classical mythology, and gateways to the next realm which had been present in Cocteau's earlier works were equally evident here. Disney's own 1989 animated adaptation of the fairy tale shows many influences from Cocteau's work, not the least of which being the moving candlesticks and other enchanted household items. Cocteau again cast Marais in his comedy film, Les Parents terrible in 1948, and it was this role which made Marais a star. By this time Cocteau had hired a young man by the name of Edouard Dermithe ( whose name was also sometimes spelled "Dermith" and "Dermit") as his gardener, but soon became aware of Dermithe's potential as both a painter and an actor. In 1949, when his play Les Enfants terrible was adapted for the screen, Dermithe was cast in the role of Paul. That same year, both Dermithe and Marais were cast in Cocteau's screen adaptation of his play Orphée, considered by many to be his cinematic masterpiece. Like the play, the film blends elements of fantasy and the surreal, with mirrors as gateways to other realms being a central motif. Cocteau suffered his first heart attack in 1954, and it was while recuperating that he learned of the death of his friend, novelist Colette, whose seat in the Academie Francais passed to him. The ceremonial sword used in his induction was designed by Cocteau and Picasso. Cocteau spent much of the remainder of the fifties painting numerous murals in churches throughout France. Some of his most noteworthy murals could be found within the Church de Notre dame de France, the Chapelle St. Pierre at Villefranche Sur Mer, and Chapelle St. Blaise de Simples at his home in Milly le Foret. This last had been begun by Cocteau in 1958 in anticipation of his own death. Cocteau was now about to enter his seventies and his health was declining rapidly. On 11 October, 1963, Cocteau received word that his good friend, singer Edith Piaf, had just succumbed to cancer. The shock, combined with his own poor health, resulted in a series of heart attacks. The last of these occurred even as Cocteau was preparing a eulogy for Piaf. He died that same day. He was later interred under the floor of the Chapelle St. Blaise des Simples, with a stone bearing the inscription, "Je reste avec vous." Edourd Dermithe inherited Cocteau's estate and spent the remainder of his years at Milly le Foret. He eventually completed the murals which Cocteau had begun in the chapel at Frejus in 1961. Despite the best efforts of Andre Breton to destroy his career and reputation, Cocteau today is hailed as one the great geniuses of French art and culture. Indeed, Cocteau could nearly be said to have single-handedly created the current age of culture, his influence being not only in poetry, literature, theatre, film, art, and dance, but also in television and even some music videos. As Martin Grief notes (while paraphrasing Harold Acton), "this innovator of the arts took the pulse of each of the nine Muses and prescribed the exact regimen she had to follow." Jean Cocteau's published works include LAMPE D'ALADIN ("Aladdin's Lamp," 1908); LE PRINCE FRIVOLE ("The Frivolous Prince," 1910); LA DANSE DE SOPHOCLE ("Dance of Sophocles," 1912); LE COQ ET L'ARLEQUIN ("Cock and Harlequin," 1918); LE CAP DE BONNE-ESPÉRANCE ("The Cape of Good Hope," 1919); LE POTOMAK (1919); CARTE BLANCHE (1920); ESCALES (1920); POÉSIES (1920); VOCABULAIRE (1922); LE SECRET PROFESSIONNEL ("Professional Secrets, 1922); LE GRAND ÉCART (1923); THOMAS L'IMPOSTEUR ("Thomas the Impostor, 1923); DESSINS (1923); PLAIN-CHANT (1923); POÉSIE (1924); LES MARIÈS DE LA TOUR EIFFEL ("The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party", 1924); LES BICHES (1924); L'ANGE HEURTEBISE ("The Angel Heurtebise," 1925); LE MYSTÈRE DE L'OISELEUR (1925); LETTRE À JACQUES MARITAIN (1926); LE RAPPEL À L'ORDRE ("A Call to Order, 1926); ORPHÉE (1926); MAISON DE SANTÉ (1926); ROMÉO ET JULIETTE (1926); OPÉRA (1926); ANTIGONE (1927); LE MYSTÈRE LAÏC (1928); OEDIPE-ROI (1928); LE LIVRE BLANC (1928); LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES ("The Incorrigble Children," 1929); UNE ENREVUE SUR LA CRITIQUE AVEC MAURICE ROUZAUD (1929); 25 DESSINS D'UN DORMEUR (1929); OPIUM (1930); LA VOIX HUMAINE (1930); ESSAI DE CRITIQUE INDIRECTE (1932); LA MACHINE INFERNALE (1934); PORTRAITS-SOUVENIR, 1900-1914 ("Paris Album," 1935); LES CHEVALIERS DE LA TABLE RONDE (1937); MON PREMIER VOYAGE ("Round the World Again in Eighty Days," 1937); LES PARENTS TERRIBLES ("Intimate Relations," 1938); LA FIN DU POTOMAK (1939); LES MONSTRES SACRÉS ("The Holy Terrors," 1940); LA MACHINE À ÉCRIRE (1941); ALLÉGORIES (1941); RENAUD ET ARMIDE (1943); LES POÈMES ALLEMANDS (1944); LÉONE (1945); LA CRUCIFIXION (1947); LA DIFFICULTÉ D'ÊTRE ("The Difficuty of Being," 1947); L'ÉTERNEL RETOUR ("The Eternal Return," 1947); LE FOYER DES ARTISTES (1947); RUY BLAS (1947); POÈMES (1948); REINES DE LA FRANCE (1948); LETTRE AYX AMÉRICAINS (1949); THÉÂTRE DE POCHE (1949); JEAN MARAIS (1951); ENTRETIENS AUTOUR DU CINÉMATOGRAPHE ("Cocteau on Film," 1951); LE JOURNAL D'UN INCONNU ("The Hand of a Stranger," 1952); LE CHIFFRE SEPT (1952); LA NAPPE DE CATALAN (1952); APPOGIATURES (1953); CLAIROBSCUR (1954); COLETTE (1955); The Journals of Jean Cocteau (1956); LA CORRIDA DU PREMIER MAI (1957); ENTRETIENS SUR LE MUSÉE DE DRESDE (1957); PARAPROSODIES (1958); GONDOLES DES MORTS (1959); LE TESTAMENT D'ORPHEE ("The Testament of Orpheus," 1959); LA PRINCESSE DE CLÈVES (1961); LE CORDON OMBILICAL (1962); LE REQUIEM (1962); L'IMPROMPTU DU PALAIS-ROYAL (1962); ENTRETIEN AVEC ROGER STÉPHANE (1964. His films include JEAN COCTEAU FAIT DU CINEMA (1925); LE SANG D'UN POÈTE ("Blood of a Poet," 1930); LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE ("Beauty and the Beast," 1946); L'AIGLE À DEUX TÊTES ("The Eagle Has Two Heads," 1946); LES PARENTS TERRIBLES ("Intimate Relations," 1948); LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES ("The Incorrigible Children," screenplay, 1949); ORPHÉE ("Orpheus," 1949); CORIOLAN (1950); LA VILLA SANTO-SOSPIR (1952); LE TESTAMENT D'ORPHEE ("The Testament of Orpheus," 1961); THOMAS L'IMPOSTEUR ("Thomas the Impostor," screenplay, 1965). Jean Cocteau: The Blood of a Poet Jean Cocteau - Biographie (Francais) Internet Movie Database - Jean Cocteau Quelques mots sur Jean Cocteau par Jean-Pierre Rosnay (Francais) Bright Lights Film Journal | Jean Cocteau: The Orphic Trilogy
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