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Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, novelist, dramatist, designer
Designer

A designer is a person who designs something. Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by psychologist Herbert Simon: 'Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.' ...
, boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation (Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a France dramatist....
 and René Char
René Char

Ren? Char was a 20th century French poet....
 for example) Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène
Mise en scène

Mise-en-sc?ne is an expression used in the theatre and film worlds to describe the design aspects of a production. It has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term," but that is not because of a lack of definitions....
 language and technologies of modernism
Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
 to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde
Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Jean Marais
Jean Marais

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a France actor and director....
, Henri Bernstein
Henri Bernstein

Henri/Henry Bernstein, Henri/Henry-L?on-Gustave-Charles Bernstein was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre.The far right Monarchisms Camelots du Roy, youth organization of the Action fran?aise, organized an Antisemitism riot against a production of one of his plays in 1911....
, Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
, whom he cast in one of his one act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940, and Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet

Raymond Radiguet was a France author.He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Foss?s, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city....
.

His work was played out in the theatrical world of the Grands Theatres, the Boulevards and beyond during the Parisian epoque he both lived through and helped define and create.






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Quotations


Du Rêve.

in La Difficulté d’Etre The Difficulty of Being (1947)

A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

Esquire magazine (February 1961)

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

Dont for a moment believe He was killing the young; He was costuming angels.

Vogue (May 1984)

If a hermit lives in a state of ecstasy, his lack of comfort becomes the height of comfort. He must relinquish it.






Encyclopedia


Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, novelist, dramatist, designer
Designer

A designer is a person who designs something. Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by psychologist Herbert Simon: 'Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.' ...
, boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 manager, playwright and filmmaker. Along with other Surrealists of his generation (Jean Anouilh
Jean Anouilh

Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a France dramatist....
 and René Char
René Char

Ren? Char was a 20th century French poet....
 for example) Cocteau grappled with the "algebra" of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène
Mise en scène

Mise-en-sc?ne is an expression used in the theatre and film worlds to describe the design aspects of a production. It has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term," but that is not because of a lack of definitions....
 language and technologies of modernism
Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
 to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde
Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Jean Marais
Jean Marais

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a France actor and director....
, Henri Bernstein
Henri Bernstein

Henri/Henry Bernstein, Henri/Henry-L?on-Gustave-Charles Bernstein was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre.The far right Monarchisms Camelots du Roy, youth organization of the Action fran?aise, organized an Antisemitism riot against a production of one of his plays in 1911....
, Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
, whom he cast in one of his one act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940, and Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet

Raymond Radiguet was a France author.He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Foss?s, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city....
.

His work was played out in the theatrical world of the Grands Theatres, the Boulevards and beyond during the Parisian epoque he both lived through and helped define and create. His versatile, unconventional approach and enormous output brought him international acclaim.

Biography

Cocteau was born in Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte

Maisons-Laffitte is a commune in France in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located . from the Kilometre Zero.Maisons-Laffitte is famous for the Ch?teau de Maisons-Laffitte, built by architect Fran?ois Mansart in the 17th century....
, a small village near Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 to Georges Cocteau and his wife Eugénie Lecomte, a prominent Parisian family. His father was a lawyer and amateur painter, who committed suicide when Cocteau was nine. At the age of fifteen, Cocteau left home. Despite his achievements in virtually all literary and artistic fields, Cocteau insisted that he was primarily a poet and that all his work was poetry. He published his first volume of poems, Aladdin's Lamp, at nineteen. Soon Cocteau became known in the Bohemian
Bohemianism

The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities....
 artistic circles as 'The Frivolous Prince'—the title of a volume he published at twenty-two. Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was an United States novelist, short story writer and designer....
 described him as a man "to whom every great line of poetry was a sunrise, every sunset the foundation of the Heavenly City..."

In his early twenties, Cocteau became associated with the writers Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust

Valentin Louis Georges Eug?ne Marcel Proust was a France novelist, essayist and critic, best known as the author of In Search of Lost Time , a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927....
, André Gide
André Gide

Andr? Paul Guillaume Gide was a France author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism movement, to the advent of Anti-imperialism between the two World Wars....
, and Maurice Barrès
Maurice Barrès

Maurice Barr?s was a French novelist, journalism, and Antisemitism nationalism politician and agitator. Leaning towards the far-left in his youth as a Georges Boulanger deputy, he progressively developed a theory close to Romantic nationalism and shifted to the right during the Dreyfus Affair, leading the Anti-Dreyfusards alongside Charle...
. During the Great war
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
  Cocteau served in the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. This was the period in which he met the poet Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire

Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary de Waz-Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a France poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jos? Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mar?a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Sant?sima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish people Painting, drawing, and Sculpture....
, artist Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian artist of Jewish heritage, practising both painting and sculpture, who pursued his career for the most part in France....
 and numerous other writers and artists with whom he later collaborated. The Russian ballet-master Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , also referred to as Serge, was a Russian people art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise....
 challenged Cocteau to write a scenario for the ballet - "Astonish me," he urged. This resulted in Parade
Parade (ballet)

Parade is a ballet with music by Erik Satie and a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau. The ballet was composed 1916-1917 for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes....
 which was produced by Diaghilev, designed by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jos? Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mar?a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Sant?sima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish people Painting, drawing, and Sculpture....
, and composed by Erik Satie
Erik Satie

Alfred ?ric Leslie Satie was a France composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
 in 1917. An important exponent of Surrealism
Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, he had great influence on the work of others, including the group of composer friends in Montparnasse
Montparnasse

Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche of the river Seine, centred on the intersection of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes....
 known as Les Six
Les Six

Les Six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1923 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled ?Les cinq Russes, les six Fran?ais et M. Satie? to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against Richard Wagner and Impressionist Music....
. The word Surrealism was coined, in fact, by Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire

Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary de Waz-Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a France poet, writer, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
 in the prologue to Les mamelles de Tirésias , a work begun in 1903 and completed in 1917 less than a year before he died. "If it had not been for Apollinaire in uniform," wrote Cocteau, "with his skull shaved, the scar on his temple and the bandage around his head, women would have gouged our eyes out with hairpins." Cocteau denied being a Surrealist or being in any way attached to the movement.

Friendship with Raymond Radiguet

In 1918 he met the French poet Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet

Raymond Radiguet was a France author.He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Foss?s, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city....
. They collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together. Cocteau also got Radiguet exempted from military service. In admiration of Radiguet's great literary talent, Cocteau promoted his friend's works in his artistic circle and also arranged for the publication by Grasset of Le Diable au corps (a largely autobiographical story of an adulterous relationship between a married woman and a younger man), exerting his influence to garner the "Nouveau Monde" literary prize for the novel. Some contemporaries and later commentators thought there might have been a romantic component to their friendship. Cocteau himself was aware of this perception, and worked earnestly to dispel the notion that their relationship was sexual in nature.

There is disagreement over Cocteau's reaction to Radiguet's sudden death in 1923, with some claiming that it left him stunned, despondent and prey to opium
Opium

Opium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of Opium poppy . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade....
 addiction. Opponents of that interpretation point out that he did not attend the funeral (he generally did not attend funerals) and immediately left Paris with Diaghilev for a performance of Les Noces
Les Noces

Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with Singers....
 (The Wedding) by the Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company which performed under the directorship of Sergei Diaghilev between 1909 and 1929. Some of their places of residence included the Th??tre Mogador and the Th??tre du Ch?telet, though they worked in many countries, including England, the U.S.A., and Spain....
 at Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is one of Monaco's various administrative areas, sometimes erroneously believed to be a town or the country's capital. The official capital is Monaco-Ville and covers all quarters of the territory....
. Cocteau himself much later characterised his reaction as one of "stupor and disgust." His opium addiction at the time, Cocteau said, was only coincidental, due to a chance meeting with Louis Laloy, the administrator of the Monte Carlo Opera. Cocteau's opium use and his efforts to stop profoundly changed his literary style. His most notable book, Les Enfants Terribles
Les Enfants Terribles

Les Enfants Terribles is a 1929 book by Jean Cocteau. It concerns two siblings, Elisabeth and Paul, who isolate themselves from the world as they grow up; this isolation is shattered by the stresses of their adolescence....
, was written in a week during a strenuous opium
Opium

Opium is a narcotic formed from the latex released by lacerating the immature seed pods of Opium poppy . It contains up to 12% morphine, an opiate alkaloid, which is most frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade....
 weaning. In Opium, Diary of an Addict, he recounts the experience of his recovery from opium addiction in 1929. His account, which includes vivid pen-and-ink illustrations, alternates between his moment to moment experiences of drug withdrawal and his current thoughts about people and events in his world.

The Human Voice

Cocteau's experiments with the human voice peaked with his play La Voix Humaine
La voix humaine

La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
. The story involves one woman on stage speaking on the telephone with her (invisible and inaudible) departing lover, who is leaving her to marry another woman. The telephone proved to be the perfect prop for Cocteau to explore his ideas, feelings, and "algebra" concerning human needs and realities in communication.

Cocteau acknowledged in the introduction to the script that the play was motivated, in part, by complaints from his actresses that his works were too writer/director-dominated and gave the players little opportunity to show off their full range of talents. La Voix Humaine
La voix humaine

La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
 was written, in effect, as an extravagant aria for Madame Berthe Bovy
Berthe Bovy

Berthe Bovy , sometimes known as Betty Bovy, was a Belgium actor who appeared in theatre, films and television programmes for over 60 years....
. Before came Orphée
Orphée

Orpheus is a 1949 in film Cinema of France directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. This film is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet , Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus ....
, later turned into one of his more successful films; after came La Machine Infernale, arguably his most fully realized work of art. La Voix Humaine
La voix humaine

La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
 is deceptively simple -- a woman alone on stage for almost one hour of non-stop theatre speaking on the telephone with her departing lover. It is, in fact, full of theatrical codes harking back to the Dadaists' Vox Humana experiments after World War One
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, Alphonse de Lamartine's "La Voix Humaine", part of his larger work Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses
Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses

Most of the piano pieces known by the generic title Harmonies po?tiques et religieuses were composed at Woronince in 1847. The ten compositions which comprise this cycle are:...
 and the effect of the creation of the Vox Humana (Voix Humaine), an organ stop
Organ stop

An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ which admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while other can be "off" ....
 of the Regal Class by Church organ masters (late 1500s) that attempted to imitate the human voice but never succeeded in doing better than the sound of a male chorus at a distance.

Reviews varied at the time and since but whatever the critique, the play, in a nutshell, represents Cocteau's state of mind and feelings towards his actors at the time: on the one hand, he desired to spoil and please them; on the other, he was fed up by their diva antics and was ready for revenge. It is also true that none of Cocteau's works has inspired as much imitation: Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a France composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music....
's opera of the same name, Gian Carlo Menotti's "opera bouffa" Le Telephone and Roberto Rosselini's film version in Italian with Anna Magnani
Anna Magnani

Anna Magnani was an Academy Award-winning Italy stage and film actress. Magnani won the Oscar for her lusty portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo ....
 L'Amore (segment: "Il Miracolo") (1948), to name the high point. There has also been a long line of interpreters including Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret

Simone Signoret is a beloved Academy Award winning legend of French cinema and widely hailed as the greatest France actress in film history. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award in 1959 for her role in Room at the Top....
, Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman

was a Swedish people three-time Academy Award-winning and two-time Emmy Award-winning Actor. She also won the Tony Award for Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in the 1st Tony Awards in 1947....
 and Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann

Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actor and was the muse of Swedish Academy Award winning director Ingmar Bergman. A winner of the Golden Globe, Ullmann has also been nominated for both the Palme d'Or and twice for the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award....
 (in the play) and Julia Migenes
Julia Migenes

Julia Migenes is an United States soprano opera singer. She was born on the Lower East Side of New York City to a family of Greeks and Irish people-Puerto Rican American descent....
 (in the opera).

According to one theory about how Cocteau was inspired to write La Voix Humaine
La voix humaine

La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
, he was experimenting with an idea by fellow French playwright Henri Bernstein
Henri Bernstein

Henri/Henry Bernstein, Henri/Henry-L?on-Gustave-Charles Bernstein was a French playwright associated with Boulevard theatre.The far right Monarchisms Camelots du Roy, youth organization of the Action fran?aise, organized an Antisemitism riot against a production of one of his plays in 1911....
. "When, in 1930, the Comedie-Française
Comédie-Française

The Com?die-Fran?aise or Th??tre-Fran?ais is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors....
 produced his La Voix Humaine
La voix humaine

La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
...Cocteau disavowed both literary right and literary left, as if to say, "I'm standing as far right as Bernstein, in his very place, but it is an optical illusion: the avant-garde is spheroid and I've gone farther left than anyone else."

Maturity

In the 1930s, Cocteau had an unlikely affair with Princess Natalie Paley, the beautiful daughter of a Romanov
Romanov

The House of Romanov was the second and last monarchy dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country from 1613 to 1917. From 1762 until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was ruled for five generations by a line of the House of Oldenburg descended from the marriage of a Romanov grand duchess to the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp....
 grand duke
Grand Duke

The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic languages countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below Monarch but higher than a sovereign duke....
 and herself a fashion-plate, sometimes actress, model, and former wife of couturier Lucien Lelong
Lucien Lelong

Lucien Lelong was a French couturier who was prominent from the 1920s to the 1940s....
. She became pregnant. To Cocteau's distress and Paley's life-long regret, the fetus was aborted
Abortion

An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death....
. Cocteau's longest-lasting relationships were with the French actors Jean Marais
Jean Marais

Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a France actor and director....
 and Edouard Dermit, whom Cocteau formally adopted. Cocteau cast Marais in The Eternal Return (1943), Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)

Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 Cinema of France romance film fantasy film adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's fairy tale. Directed by French poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as both Avenant and The Beast....
, Ruy Blas
Ruy Blas

Ruy Blas is a Tragedy drama by Victor Hugo. It was the first play presented at the Th??tre de la Renaissance and opened on November 8 1838....
 (1947) and Orpheus (1949).

In 1940, Le Bel Indifférent, Cocteau's play written for and starring Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
, was enormously successful. He also worked with Pablo Picasso on several projects and was friends with most of the European art community. He struggled with an opium addiction for most of his adult life and was openly gay
Gay

The term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree," "happy," or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
, though he had a few brief and complicated affairs with women other than Paley (including, some say, Piaf). He published a considerable amount of work criticising homophobia
Homophobia

Homophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. Some definitions lack the "irrational" component....
.

Cocteau's films, most of which he both wrote and directed, were particularly important in introducing Surrealism into French cinema
Cinema of France

The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies, making within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad. France was the birthplace of cinema and saw many of its initial significant contributions....
 and influenced to a certain degree the upcoming French New Wave
French New Wave

The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of Cinema of France of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema....
 genre.

Cocteau is best known for his 1929 play Les enfants terribles
Les Enfants Terribles

Les Enfants Terribles is a 1929 book by Jean Cocteau. It concerns two siblings, Elisabeth and Paul, who isolate themselves from the world as they grow up; this isolation is shattered by the stresses of their adolescence....
, the 1948 film Les parents terribles
Les parents terribles

Jean Cocteau's 1948 boulevard theatre farce-with-a-vengeance Les parents terribles tells the tale of Michael and his 'parents terribles', George and Yvonne....
, and the films Beauty and the Beast, (1946) and Orpheus (1949).

Cocteau died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when the Blood flow to part of the heart is interrupted. This is most commonly due to occlusion of a coronary artery following the rupture of a Vulnerable plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids and white blood cells in the wall of an artery....
 at his chateau
Château

A ch?teau is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally - and still most frequently - in French language-speaking regions....
 in Milly-la-Foret, France, on 11 October 1963 at the age of 74, only hours after hearing of the death of his friend, the French singer Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf

?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
. He is buried beneath the floor of the Chapelle Saint Blaise Des Simples in Milly La Foret, Essonne
Essonne

Essonne is a France departments of France in the regions of France of ?le-de-France . It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 with the split of the Seine-et-Oise department....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. The epitaph on his gravestone set in the floor of the chapel reads: "I stay among you" ("Je reste avec vous").

Honours and awards

In 1955 Cocteau was made a member of the Académie française
Académie française

L'Acad?mie fran?aise, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent France learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Acad?mie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to Louis XIII of France....
 and The Royal Academy of Belgium
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium

There are two Royal Academies for Science and the Arts in Belgium, corresponding to the two main languages of the country, Dutch language and French language ....
.

During his life Cocteau was commander of the Legion of Honor
Légion d'honneur

The L?gion d'honneur or Ordre national de la L?gion d'honneur is a France order established by Napoleon I of France, First Consul of the French First Republic, on May 19, 1802....
, Member of the Mallarmé Academy, German Academy (Berlin), American Academy, Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
 (U.S.A) Academy, Honorary President of the Cannes film festival
Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival , founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals alongside Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival....
, Honorary President of the France-Hungary Association and President of the jazz Academy and of the Academy of the Disc.

Filmography

  • Le sang d'un poète
    The Blood of a Poet

    The Blood of a Poet is an avant-garde film directed by Jean Cocteau and financed by Charles, Vicomte de Noailles. Photographer Lee Miller made her only film appearance in this movie, and it also features an appearance by the famed acrobat Barbette ....
     (The Blood of a Poet) (1930)
  • L'Eternel Retour (The Eternal Return) (1943)
  • La belle et la bête
    Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)

    Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 Cinema of France romance film fantasy film adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's fairy tale. Directed by French poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as both Avenant and The Beast....
     (Beauty and the Beast) (1946)
  • L'aigle à deux têtes (The Eagle Has Two Heads) (1947)
  • Les parents terribles
    Les parents terribles (film)

    Les parents terribles is a 1948 in film black and white film adaptation of the stage play Les parents terribles by Jean Cocteau. Cocteau also directed and wrote the screenplay for the film, which was also known under the English title The Storm Within....
     (The Storm Within) (1948)
  • Coriolan (1950) Never Released
  • Orphée (Orpheus) (1950)
  • La villa Santo-Sospir
    La villa Santo-Sospir

    La Villa Santo-Sospir is a 35-minute amateur or home film directed by Jean Cocteau in which Cocteau takes the viewer on a tour of a friend's villa on the French coast ....
     (1952)
  • 8 X 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) Co-director, Experimental)
  • Le testament d'Orphée
    Testament of Orpheus

    Testament of Orpheus is a 1960 film directed by and starring Jean Cocteau. It is considered the final part of the Orphic Trilogy, following The Blood of a Poet and Orph?e ....
     (The Testament of Orpheus) (1960)


Works


Literature

Poetry
  • 1909
    1909 in literature

    The year 1909 in literature involved some significant new books....
     La Lampe d'Aladin
  • 1910
    1910 in literature

    The year 1910 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Le Prince frivole
  • 1912
    1912 in literature

    The year 1912 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     La Danse de Sophocle
  • 1919
    1919 in literature

    The year 1919 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Ode à Picasso - Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance
  • 1920
    1920 in literature

    The year 1920 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Escale. Poésies (1917-1920)
  • 1922
    1922 in literature

    The year 1922 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Under the current United States copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1923 with a proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date of the copyright....
     Vocabulaire
  • 1923
    1923 in literature

    The year 1923 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     La Rose de François - Plain-Chant
  • 1925
    1925 in literature

    The year 1925 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Cri écrit
  • 1926
    1926 in literature

    The year 1926 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     L'Ange Heurtebise
  • 1927
    1927 in literature

    The year 1927 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Opéra
  • 1934
    1934 in literature

    The year 1934 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Mythologie
  • 1939
    1939 in literature

    The year 1939 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Énigmes
  • 1941
    1941 in literature

    The year 1941 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Allégories
  • 1945
    1945 in literature

    The year 1945 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Léone
  • 1946
    1946 in literature

    The year 1946 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     La Crucifixion
  • 1948
    1948 in literature

    The year 1948 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Poèmes
  • 1952
    1952 in literature

    The year 1952 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Le Chiffre sept - La Nappe du Catalan (en collaboration avec Georges Hugnet)
  • 1953
    1953 in literature

    The year 1953 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Dentelles d'éternité - Appoggiatures
  • 1954
    1954 in literature

    The year 1954 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Clair-obscur
  • 1958
    1958 in literature

    The year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Paraprosodies
  • 1961
    1961 in literature

    The year 1961 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Cérémonial espagnol du Phénix - La Partie d'échecs
  • 1962
    1962 in literature

    The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Le Requiem
  • 1968
    1968 in literature

    The year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books....
     Faire-Part (posthume)


Novels
  • 1919 Le Potomak (definitive edition: 1924)
  • 1923 Le Grand écart - Thomas l'imposteur
  • 1928 Le Livre blanc
  • 1929 Les Enfants terribles
  • 1940 La Fin du Potomak


Theater
  • 1917 Parade
    Parade (ballet)

    Parade is a ballet with music by Erik Satie and a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau. The ballet was composed 1916-1917 for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes....
    , ballet
    Ballet

    Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
     (music by Erik Satie
    Erik Satie

    Alfred ?ric Leslie Satie was a France composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
    , choreography by Léonide Massine)
  • 1921 Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel (music by Georges Auric
    Georges Auric

    Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lod?ve, H?rault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published....
    , Arthur Honegger
    Arthur Honegger

    Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les Six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam engine locomotive....
    , Darius Milhaud
    Darius Milhaud

    Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six - also known as the Groupe des Six - and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
    , Francis Poulenc
    Francis Poulenc

    Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a France composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music....
     and Germaine Tailleferre
    Germaine Tailleferre

    Germaine Tailleferre was a France composer and the only female member of the famous Group Les Six....
    )
  • 1922 Antigone
  • 1924 Roméo et Juliette
  • 1930 La Voix humaine
    La voix humaine

    La Voix humaine is a one-act opera for one character, with music by Francis Poulenc to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, based on his 1932 play....
  • 1934 La Machine infernale
  • 1936 L'École des veuves
  • 1937 Œdipe-roi. Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde
  • 1938 Les Parents terribles
  • 1940 Les Monstres sacrés
  • 1941 La Machine à écrire
  • 1943 Renaud et Armide. L'Épouse injustement soupçonnée
  • 1944 L'Aigle à deux têtes
  • 1946 Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
    Le jeune homme et la mort

    Le Jeune Homme et La Mort is a ballet by Roland Petit was made in 1946 to Johann Sebastian Bach Passacaglia in C Minor with a one act libretto by Jean Cocteau....
    , ballet
    Ballet

    Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
     by Roland Petit
    Roland Petit

    File:RolandPetit09.jpgRoland Petit is a France choreographer and dancer born in Villemomble near Paris, France. He trained at the Paris Op?ra ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets, which include:...
  • 1948 Théâtre I and II
  • 1951 Bacchus
  • 1960 Nouveau théâtre de poche
  • 1962 L'Impromptu du Palais-Royal
  • 1971 Le Gendarme incompris (posthumous, in collaboration with Raymond Radiguet
    Raymond Radiguet

    Raymond Radiguet was a France author.He was born in Saint-Maur-des-Foss?s, Val-de-Marne close to Paris, the son of a caricaturist. In 1917 he moved to the city....
    )


Poetry and Criticism
  • 1918 Le Coq et l'Arlequin
  • 1920 Carte blanche
  • 1922 Le Secret professionnel
  • 1926 Le Rappel à l'ordre - Lettre à Jacques Maritain
  • 1930 Opium
  • 1932 Essai de critique indirecte
  • 1935 Portraits-Souvenir
  • 1937 Mon Premier voyage (Around the World in 80 Days)
  • 1943 Le Greco
  • 1947 Le Foyer des artistes - La Difficulté d'être
  • 1949 Lettres aux Américains - Reines de la France
  • 1951 Jean Marais
    Jean Marais

    Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a France actor and director....
     - A Discussion about Cinematography (with André Fraigneau)
  • 1952 Gide
    André Gide

    Andr? Paul Guillaume Gide was a France author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism movement, to the advent of Anti-imperialism between the two World Wars....
     vivant
  • 1953 Journal d'un inconnu. Démarche d'un poète
  • 1955 Colette
    Colette

    Colette was the pen name of the France novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known, at least in the English-speaking world, for her novel Gigi, which provided the plot for a Lerner & Loewe musical film and Musical theatre....
     (Discourse on the reception at the Royal Academy of Belgium) - Discourse on the reception at the Académie française
    Académie française

    L'Acad?mie fran?aise, or the French Academy, is the pre-eminent France learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Acad?mie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to Louis XIII of France....
  • 1956 Discours d'Oxford
  • 1957 Entretiens sur le musée de Dresde (with Louis Aragon) - La Corrida du 1 mai
  • 1959 Poésie critique I
  • 1960 Poésie critique II
  • 1962 Le Cordon ombilical
  • 1963 La Comtesse de Noailles, oui et non
  • 1964 Portrait souvenir (posthumous ; A discussion with Roger Stéphane)
  • 1965 Entretiens avec André Fraigneau (posthumous)
  • 1973 Jean Cocteau par Jean Cocteau (posthumous ; A discussion with William Fielfield)
  • 1973 Du cinématographe (posthumous). Entretiens sur le cinématographe (posthumous)
Journalistic Poetry
  • 1935-1938 (posthumous)


Film

Director
  • 1925
    1925 in film

    Events...
     :     Jean Cocteau fait du cinéma
  • 1930
    1930 in film

    Events...
     :     Le Sang d'un poète
  • 1946
    1946 in film

    The year 1946 in film involved some significant events....
     :     La Belle et la Bête
  • 1948
    1948 in film

    The year 1948 in film involved some significant events....
     :     L'Aigle à deux têtes
  • 1948
    1948 in film

    The year 1948 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Les Parents terribles
    Les parents terribles (film)

    Les parents terribles is a 1948 in film black and white film adaptation of the stage play Les parents terribles by Jean Cocteau. Cocteau also directed and wrote the screenplay for the film, which was also known under the English title The Storm Within....
  • 1950
    1955 in film

    The year 1955 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Orphée
  • 1950
    1952 in film

    The year 1952 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Coriolan
  • 1952
    1952 in film

    The year 1952 in film involved some significant events....
     :     La Villa Santo-Sospir
    La villa Santo-Sospir

    La Villa Santo-Sospir is a 35-minute amateur or home film directed by Jean Cocteau in which Cocteau takes the viewer on a tour of a friend's villa on the French coast ....
  • 1955
    1955 in film

    The year 1955 in film involved some significant events....
     :     L'Amour sous l'électrode
  • 1957
    1957 in film

    The year 1957 in film involved some significant events....
     :     8 X 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements
  • 1960
    1960 in film

    The year 1960 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Le Testament d'Orphée
Scriptwriter
  • 1943
    1943 in film

    The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.EventsTop grossing films Awards16th Academy Awards*Bataan ...
     :     L'Éternel Retour directed byJean Delannoy
    Jean Delannoy

    Jean Delannoy was a France actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director.Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family is from Haute-Normandie in the north of France....
  • 1948
    1948 in film

    The year 1948 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Ruy Blas directed by Pierre Billon
  • 1950
    1950 in film

    The year 1950 in film involved some significant events....
     :     Les Enfants terribles directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
    Jean-Pierre Melville

    Jean-Pierre Melville was a France filmmaker. He later adopted the pseudonym Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author, Herman Melville....
    , script by Jean Cocteau based on his novel
: La Princesse de Clèves directed by Jean Delannoy
Jean Delannoy

Jean Delannoy was a France actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director.Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family is from Haute-Normandie in the north of France....
 : Thomas l'imposteur
Thomas l'imposteur

Thomas l'imposteur is a 1964 French movie directed by Georges Franju and starring Emmanuelle Riva, Fabrice Rouleau, Sophie Dares, Jean Marais and Charles Aznavour....
 directed by Georges Franju
Georges Franju

Georges Franju was a France filmmaker. He was born in Foug?res, France....
, script by Jean Cocteau based on his novel

Dialogue Writer
  • 1943 : Le Baron fantôme (+ acteur) directed bySerge de Poligny
: La Princesse de Clèves directed by Jean Delannoy
Jean Delannoy

Jean Delannoy was a France actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director.Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family is from Haute-Normandie in the north of France....
 : Thomas l'imposteur
Thomas l'imposteur

Thomas l'imposteur is a 1964 French movie directed by Georges Franju and starring Emmanuelle Riva, Fabrice Rouleau, Sophie Dares, Jean Marais and Charles Aznavour....
 directed by Georges Franju
Georges Franju

Georges Franju was a France filmmaker. He was born in Foug?res, France....


Director of Photography
  • 1950 : Un chant d'amour
    Un Chant d'Amour

    Un Chant d'Amour is France writer Jean Genet's only film, which he directed in 1950 in film. Because of its explicit homosexual content, the 26-minute movie was long banned and even disowned by Genet later in his life....
     réalisé par Jean Genet
    Jean Genet

    Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial France novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activism. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing....


Poetry Illustrator

  • 1924 : Dessins
  • 1925 : Le Mystère de Jean l'oiseleur
  • 1926 : Maison de santé
  • 1929 : 25 dessins d'un dormeur
  • 1935 : 60 designs for [Les Enfants terribles]
  • 1941 : Drawings in the margins of Chevaliers de la Table ronde
  • 1948 : Drôle de ménage
  • 1957 : La Chapelle Saint-Pierre, Villefranche-sur-Mer
    Villefranche-sur-Mer

    Villefranche-sur-Mer is a commune in France in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France in the Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur regions of France on the French Riviera....
  • 1958 : La Salle des mariages, City Hall of Menton - La Chapelle Saint-Pierre (lithographies)
  • 1959 : Gondol des morts
  • 1960 : Chapelle Saint-Blaise-des-Simples, Milly-la-Forêt
    Milly-la-Forêt

    Milly-la-For?t is a commune in France in the Essonne Departments of France in France....
  • Années 1960 : Windows of the Église Saint-Maximin de Metz


Recordings

  • Colette par Jean Cocteau, discours de réception à l'Académie Royale de Belgique, Ducretet-Thomson 300 V 078 St.
  • Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and Portraits-Souvenir, La Voix de l'Auteur LVA 13
  • Plain-chant by Jean Marais, extracts from the piece Orphée by Jean-Pierre Aumont
    Jean-Pierre Aumont

    Jean-Pierre Aumont was a France actor....
    , Michel Bouquet
    Michel Bouquet

    Michel Bouquet is a France film actor. He has appeared in over 90 films since 1947 in film.He was born in Paris, France....
    , Monique Mélinand, Les parents terribles by Yvonne de Bray
    Yvonne de Bray

    Yvonne de Bray was a France stage and film actress....
     and Jean Marais, L'aigle à deux têtes par Edwige Feuillère
    Edwige Feuillère

    Edwige Feuill?re was a French film actress.She was born christened Edwige Louise Caroline Cunati but sometimes used the stage name of Cora Lynn....
     and Jean Marais, L'Encyclopédie Sonore 320 E 874, 1971
  • Collection of three vinyl recordings of Jean Cocteau including La voix humaine by Simone Signoret
    Simone Signoret

    Simone Signoret is a beloved Academy Award winning legend of French cinema and widely hailed as the greatest France actress in film history. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award in 1959 for her role in Room at the Top....
    , 18 songs composed by Louis Bessières, Bee Michelin and Renaud Marx, on double-piano Paul Castanier, Le discours de réception à l'Académie Française, Jacques Canetti JC1, 1984
  • Derniers propos à bâtons rompus avec Jean Cocteau, 16/09/1963 à Milly-la-Forêt, Bel Air 311035
  • Les enfants terribles, radio version with Jean Marais, Josette Day
    Josette Day

    Josette Day was a France film actress.Born in Paris on July 31, 1914, she began her career as an actress in 1919 at the age of five. Day was married in 1941 to studio head Marcel Pagnol, who she met in January 1939....
    , Sylvia Montfort and Jean Cocteau, CD Phonurgia Nova ISBN 2-908325-07-1, 1992
  • Anthology, 4 CD containing numerous poems and texts read by the author, Anna la bonne, La dame de Monte-Carlo and Mes sœurs, n'aimez pas les marins by Marianne Oswald, Le bel indifférent by Edith Piaf
    Édith Piaf

    ?dith Piaf was a France singer and cultural icon of partly algeria and Italy descent who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads....
    , La voix humaine by Berthe Bovy
    Berthe Bovy

    Berthe Bovy , sometimes known as Betty Bovy, was a Belgium actor who appeared in theatre, films and television programmes for over 60 years....
    , Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel with Jean Le Poulain, Jacques Charon
    Jacques Charon

    Jacques Charon was a France actor and film director.Born in Paris, Charon trained at the CNSAD and made his d?but at the Com?die-Fran?aise in 1941....
     and Jean Cocteau, discourse on the reception at the Académie Française, with extracts from Les parents terribles, La machine infernale, pieces from Parade on piano with two hands by Georges Auric
    Georges Auric

    Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lod?ve, H?rault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published....
     and Francis Poulenc
    Francis Poulenc

    Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a France composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music....
    , Frémeaux & Associés FA 064, 1997
  • Poems by Jean Cocteau read by the author, CD EMI 8551082, 1997
  • Hommage à Jean Cocteau, mélodies d'Henri Sauguet
    Henri Sauguet

    Henri Sauguet , was a France composer. Born Henri-Pierre Poupart in Bordeaux, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym.He started learning the piano when he was just five years old, being taught by his mother, Elisabeth, and also Marie Brodier....
    , Arthur Honegger
    Arthur Honegger

    Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les Six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam engine locomotive....
    , Louis Durey
    Louis Durey

    Louis Durey was a France composer....
    , Darius Milhaud
    Darius Milhaud

    Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six - also known as the Groupe des Six - and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
    , Erik Satie
    Erik Satie

    Alfred ?ric Leslie Satie was a France composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
    , Jean Wiener
    Jean Wiener

    Jean Wiener was a French pianist and composer....
    , Max Jacob
    Max Jacob

    Max Jacob was a French poet, Painting, writer, and critic....
    , Francis Poulenc, Maurice Delage
    Maurice Delage

    Maurice Delage was a French composer and pianist. A student of Maurice Ravel and member of Les Apaches, he was influenced by travels to India and the East....
    , Georges Auric, Guy Sacre, by Jean-François Gardeil (baryton) and Billy Eidi (piano), CD Adda 581177, 1989
  • Le testament d'Orphée, journal sonore, by Roger Pillaudin, 2 CD INA / Radio France 211788, 1998


Journals

  • 1946 La Belle et la Bête (film journal)
  • 1949 Maalesh (journal of a stage production)
  • 1983 Le Passé défini (posthumous)
  • 1989 Journal, 1942-1945


Stamps

  • Marianne de Cocteau, 1960


Bibliography

  • Cocteau, Jean, Le coq et l'arlequin: Notes autour de la musique - avec un portrait de l'Auteur et deux monogrammes par P. Picasso, Paris, Éditions de la Sirène, 1918
  • Cocteau, Jean, Le Grand écart, 1923, his first novel
  • Cocteau, Jean, Le Numéro Barbette, an influential essay on the nature of art inspired by the performer Barbette
    Barbette (performer)

    Barbette was an American female impersonator, Tightrope walking performer and trapeze artist born in Texas on December 19, 1899. Barbette attained great popularity throughout the United States but his greatest fame came in Europe and especially Paris, in the 1920s and 1930s....
    , 1926
  • Cocteau, Jean, The Human Voice, translated by Carl Wildman, Vision Press Ltd., Great Britain, 1947
  • Cocteau, Jean, The Eagle Has Two Heads, adapted by Ronald Duncan
    Ronald Duncan

    Ronald Duncan was a writer, poet and playwright, now best known for preparing the libretto for Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia, first performed in 1946....
    , Vision Press Ltd., Great Britain, 1947
  • Cocteau, Jean, "Bacchus." Paris: Gallimard, 1952.
  • Cocteau, Jean, The Holy Terrors (Les enfants terribles
    Les Enfants Terribles

    Les Enfants Terribles is a 1929 book by Jean Cocteau. It concerns two siblings, Elisabeth and Paul, who isolate themselves from the world as they grow up; this isolation is shattered by the stresses of their adolescence....
    )    , translated by Rosamond Lehmann, New Directions Publishing Corp., New York, 1957
  • Cocteau, Jean, Opium: The Diary of a Cure, translated by Margaret Crosland and Sinclair Road, Grove Press Inc., New York, 1958
  • Cocteau, Jean, The Infernal Machine And Other Plays, translated by W.A. Auden, E.E. Cummings
    E. E. Cummings

    Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, was an Poetry of the United States, painter, essayist, author, and playwright....
    , Dudley Fitts
    Dudley Fitts

    Dudley Fitts was an United States teacher, critic, poet, andtranslator. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Harvard University where he edited the Harvard Advocate....
    , Albert Bermel, Mary C. Hoeck, and John K. Savacool, New Directions Books, New York, 1963
  • Cocteau, Jean, Toros Muertos, along with Lucien Clergue
    Lucien Clergue

    Lucien Clergue is a France photography ....
     and Jean Petit, Brussel & Brussel,1966
  • Cocteau, Jean, The Art of Cinema, edited by André Bernard and Claude Gauteur, translated by Robin Buss, Marion Boyars, London, 1988
  • Cocteau, Jean, Diary of an Unknown, translated by Jesse Browner, Paragon House Publishers, New York, 1988
  • Cocteau, Jean, The White Book (Le livre blanc), sometimes translated as The White Paper, translated by Margaret Crosland, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1989
  • Cocteau, Jean, Les parents terribles, new translation by Jeremy Sams, Nick Hern Books, London, 1994


External links



  • Biography:
  • Poetry and music :
    • introduces work by Les Six
      Les Six

      Les Six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1923 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled ?Les cinq Russes, les six Fran?ais et M. Satie? to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against Richard Wagner and Impressionist Music....
       on audio CD Cocteau, Satie and Les Six
    • reads La Toison d'Or and Les voleurs d'enfants in 1929 with Dan Parrish Jazz Orchestra on the audio CD Surrealism Reviewed
    • reading poetry backed by the Dan Parrish Jazz Orchestra
  • , at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
    University of Texas at Austin

    The University of Texas at Austin is a public university research university located in Austin, Texas, Texas, United States, and is the flagship#University campuses institution of University of Texas System....