Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau (Maisons-Laffitte, France, July 5, 1889-Milly-la-Forêt, France, October 11, 1963) was a poet, playwright, writer, art critic French essayist, painter, film director and designer.

Biography

The son of Georges Cocteau and Eugénie Lecomte, he was born in Maisons-Laffitte, a small town near Paris, and was the youngest of three children, after Marthe (1877-1958) and Paul (1881-1961). His father, a lawyer and rentier, committed suicide in 1898 by shooting himself in the head. This, along with the subsequent move of his two siblings with his grandparents, made his mother overprotective of little Jean.

In 1900 he entered the Lycée Condorcet, from which he was expelled for indiscipline four years later, and in 1906 he continued his education at the Lycée Fénelon, where he never achieved regular performance due to his lack of interest.

Jean Cocteau, by Amedeo Modigliani.

Cocteau began writing poems at an early age and in 1908, Édouard de Max, a fan of the young man's work, introduced him as a young prodigy in a poetic matinée at the Théâtre Fémina. The following year, he published his first compilation, La lampe d'Aladin.

In 1909, the year he moved with his mother to rue d'Anjou in Paris, he had a fleeting relationship with the comedian Madeleine Carlier and, thanks to his friendship with Sergei Diaghilev and the revelation of his troupe of dance, Jean Cocteau entered the circle of ballet and theater.

ballet premiere poster StopJean Cocteau and Erik Satie.

The sudden death of his great love, Raymond Radiguet, on December 12, 1923 affected him terribly and he even declared: "I will no longer write". Desperate, Cocteau becomes addicted to opium and despite numerous detoxification cures, he will use drugs until the end of his life. In 1925 he met Jean Desbordes (1906-1944) whom he drew in the 25 Dessins d'un dormeur of 1929

In 1930 he made his first film The Blood of a Poet and was later hospitalized for 40 days due to a bout of typhoid fever. During 1932 he maintained a relationship with Natalia Paléi, daughter of the Russian Grand Duke Pablo Románov. The princess became pregnant, but she miscarried. Cocteau refers to this tragedy in Le passé défini , where he claims that the abortion was due to a violent scene with Marie-Laure de Noailles. However, it could well have been caused by opium, the drug Cocteau had started her on.

After Paléi, he will no longer be known to have significant sentimental relationships with women; only with men: Marcel Khill, whom he met the same year as Paléi's abortion and with whom he made his trip around the world in 80 days in 1936 (in Mon Premier voyage he will appear as Passepartout), Jean Marais; Édouard Dermit, who would become her adopted son and heir.

In 1943 his mother died; two years later he films La Belle et la Bête (premiered in 1946), specially written for Marais, his longest-lasting partner, whom he had met in 1937. His relationship with the young actor drew strong criticism, which he countered in his essays against homophobia. Cocteau had given Marais a silent role in his Oedipus Rex and then, in 1938, created the play The Terrible Parents for him. Marais will also act in 1946 in his play The Two-Headed Eagle and in his famous film Orfeo, released in 1950.

His right-hand man in theater and film was the painter and designer Christian Bérard —whom Cocteau nicknamed Baby—, director of the exquisite set designs for Beauty and the Beast, The Human Voice, The Two-Headed Eagle and other works, until he died in 1949, at the age of 47.

Cocteau was elected a member of the French Academy on March 3, 1955, and two years later he became an honorary member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in New York.

In 1960 he made the set design for the opera La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc, performed by Denise Duval, for the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Jean Cocteau died in Milly-la-Forêt, near Fontainebleau, on October 11, 1963, the victim of an acute myocardial infarction, hours after learning of the death of his friend Édith Piaf. The house has been opened to the public, and houses an important collection of works and memorabilia.

Works

• Selected works, prose, drawings and theatre, with 118 illustrations; prologue by Juan Gil Albert, trad.: Aurora Bernárdez, Luis Hernández Alfonso, Miguel de Hernani, José Hesse, Julio Lago and Enrique López Martín; Aguilar, Madrid, 1966, 1274 pp (reprint: 1969). It contains:
  • Prose: Thomas the impostor, Terrible boys.; Portraits; I remember.; Reception speech at the French Academy
  • Drawings: Setenta drawings Terrible boys.
  • Theatre: The boyfriends of the Eiffel Tower; Orfeo; The human voice; The infernal machine; The Knights of the Round Table; Terrible parents; The sacred monsters; The typewriter; The eagle of two heads; Baco
• Cocteau en España, drawings, ceramics, lithographs, photographs; exhibition catalogue, Camón Aznar Museum, Zaragoza, 1992
• Cocteau and Spain, Reina Sofia Museum, 2001

Novels

• Le Potomak1919 — The Potomak, trad.: Montserrat Morales Peco; Cabaret Voltaire, Barcelona, 2013
• Le Grand écart, 1923 — The Great Separation, trad.: Montserrat Morales Peco; Cabaret Voltaire, Barcelona, 2009
• Thomas l'imposteur, 1923 — Thomas the impostor, Bruguera, trad.: Ramón Camps Salvat, Barcelona, 1981; trad.: Montserrat Morales Peco, Cabaret Voltaire, Barcelona, 2006
• Le Livre blanc, 1928 — The white book, prologue and trad.: Arturo Bázquez Barrón, introduction of Milorad, editorial P. Arriaga, Mexico, 1995; prologue of Vicente Molina Foix, trad.: Martine Monleau; La Mascara, Valencia, 1999; trad.: Montserrat Morales Peco, Cabaret Voltaire, Barcelona, 2010
• Les Enfants terribles, 1929 — Terrible childhood, trad.: Julio Gómez de la Serna; Editions Ulises, Madrid, 1930, Nardin, Buenos Aires, 1955; The terrible boys, Editorial Fontamara, Barcelona 1974; The terrible children, trad.: Mauricio Wacquez, Bruguera, Barcelona, 1981; edition and trad.: José Ignacio Velázquez; Cátedra, Madrid, 1997 (reeditation: 2006)
• The End of Potomak, 1940
• Les deux transvestites1947

Poetry

• La lampe d'Aladin1909
• Le prince frivole, 1910
• The Danse of Sophocle, 1912
• Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance1918
• L'Ode à Picasso1919 — Oda a Picasso, prologue and trad.: Cristina Peri Rosi; Small Library Calamus Scriptorius, Barcelona, 1981 (reissue: Palma de Mallorca, José J. de Olañeta, 2003)
• Poesies 1917-1920, 1920
• Vocabulaire, 1922
• Plain-chant, 1923
• Cri écrit1925
• Prière mutilée1925
• L'Ange Heurtebise, 1926
• Opéra1927
• Morceaux choisis, poèmes, 1926-1932, 1932
• Mythologie, 1934
• Énigme1939
• Allégories, 1941
• Poèmes écrits en allemand,
• Léone1945
• The crucifixion, 1946
• Poèmes1948
• Anthologie poétique de Jean Cocteau, 1951
• La nappe du Catalan 1952
• Le chiffre sept1952
• Appogiatures, 1953
• Dentelle d'éternité, 1953
• Clair-obscur1954
• Poèmes, 1916-19551956
• Paraprosodies précédées de 7 dialogues1958
• Gondole des morts1959
• Cérémonial espagnol du phénix, suivi de La partie d'échecs1961
• Requiem1962
• Poems, bilingual edition, trad.: Ahmed el-Boab; Letras Vivas, Mexico, 2000

Dramatics

• Stop1917. For the Russian Ballets: composed by Sergei Diaghilev, choreographed by Léonide Massine, music by Erik Satie and costumes and scenery by Pablo Picasso
• Orphée, 1926
• Oedipus Rex1927. Igor Stravinski music
• Roméo et Juliette, 1928
• The Voix humaine1930. In 1958, Francis Poulenc wrote a homonymous opera with Cocteau libretto based on this piece. In 2013, the short film premiered La voce umana, led by Edoardo Ponti and Sophia Loren as lead actress
• The machine infernale, 1934
• Œdipe-roi, 1937
• Le bel indifférent, 1940
• L'Épouse injustement soupçonnée, 1943

1946, Le Jeune Homme Et La Mort

• Théâtre I: Antigone - Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel - Les Chevaliers de la table ronde - Les Parents terrible1948
• Théâtre II: Les Monstres sacrés - La Machine à écrire - Renaud et Armide - L'aigle à deux têtes1948
• Théâtre de poche, 1949
• Bacchus1952
• Nouveau théâtre de poche, 1960
• L'Impromptu du Palais-Royal1962
• Paul et Virginie, 1968
• Le gendarme incompris, 1971

Theater editions in Spanish

• The eagle of two heads, trad.: Javier Olavide; Editorial José Janés, Barcelona, 1950
• Terrible parents (1938); The sacred monsters; The typewriter (1941), trad.: Aurora Bernárdez, Losada, Buenos Aires, 1952 (reissue: 1959)
• Antigone; Reinaldo and Armida, preface of Rosa Chacel, trad.: Miguel Alfredo Olivera and Rosa Chacel; Emecé, Buenos Aires, 1952
• Four monologues, with five original drawings of the author, Ediciones Alfil, Madrid, 1962. It contains:
  • The beautiful indifferent; The human voice; The castle farce; The ghost of Marseille
• Terrible parents (1938), Losada, Buenos Aires, 1974
• The sacred monsters and The typewriter (1941), Losada, Buenos Aires, 2004
• Baco; The boyfriends of the Eiffel Towerand The Knights of the Round Table; trad.: Miguel de Hernani, Losada, Buenos Aires, 2004
• Terrible parents (1938) and The typewriter (1941), Losada, Buenos Aires, 2006

Essay, criticism, diaries

• Carte blanche, 1920
• Le Secret professionnel, 1922
• 'Le Rappel à l'ordre - Lettre à Jacques Maritain, 1926
• Opium: Journal d'une désintoxicationwritten in 1928-1929; published in 1930 — Opium: Diary of Detoxification, prologue and trad.: Julio Gómez de la Serna, Ediciones de la Flor, Buenos Aires, 1969; Opium, prologue and trad.: Ignacio Vidal-Folch; Planeta, Barcelona, 2009
• Essai de critique indirecte
• Portraits-Souvenir, 1935
• Mon Premier voyageback to the world in 80 days, 1937
• Le Greco, 1943
• Le Foyer des artistes - The Difficulté d'être, 1943 — The difficulty of being, trad.: María Teresa Gallego Urrutia; Siruela, Madrid, 2006
• Lettres aux Américains - Reines de la France, 1949
• Jean Marais - Entretiens autour du cinématographe (avec André Fraigneau), 1951
• Jean Marais par Jean CocteauCalmann-Lévy, 1951
• Gide vivant1952
• Journal d'un inconnu. Démarche d'un poète, 1953
• Colette (discours de réception à l'Académie royale de Belgique) - Discours de réception à l'Académie française, 1955
• Discours d'Oxford, 1956
• Entretiens sur le musée de Dresden (avec Louis Aragon) - La Corrida du 1re mai, 1957 — The cumshot of May 1, trad.: David Villanueva Sanz; Demipage, Madrid, 2009
• Poésie critique I, 1959
• Poésie critique II, 1960
• Le Cordon ombilical1962 — The umbulical cord, trad.: Antonio Álvarez, edition of Alfredo Taján; Confluencia, Málaga, 2012
• La Comtesse de Noailles, oui et non1963
• Lettres à sa mèreGallimard, Paris, 1989 — Letters to my mother 1906-1918, trad.:Pedro Ubertone; Zorzal Books, Buenos Aires, 2003

Painting

• Dessins, 1923
• Le mystère de Jean l'oiseleur1925
• Maison de santé, 1926
• Poésie plastique1927
• 25 dessins d'un dormeur, 1928
• Soixante dessins pour les Enfants terribles, 1935
• Dessins en marge du texte des Chevaliers de la table ronde, 1941
• Drôle de ménage1948
• La chapelle Saint-Pierre, Villefranche-sur-mer1957
• La salle des mariages, Hôtel de ville de Menton1957
• La Chapelle Saint-Pierre1958
• Saint-Blaise- des-simples, 1960

Cinema