Cocteau, Jean

Born July 5, 1889 in Mason Laffitte, France. The son of a lawyer and an amateur artist who committed suicide when his son was 9 years old. Grandfather Cocteau, who raised him, organized amateur concerts at home, was a music lover and collector, including musical instruments. The family collection included paintings by Ingres, Delacroix, Greek statues. According to Jean Cocteau, he was obliged to his grandfather by his upbringing and education. ^[eight]

He studied at one of the best lyceums in Paris - Lyceum Condorcet .

In 1910-1920 he formed as a poet, paid tribute to Dadaism in the collection of "Poems" and surrealism in the collection of poetry "Opera". He became especially known as a graphic artist, was committed to cubism. The artistic perception and thinking of Jean Cocteau was influenced by aesthetics, views and collaboration with Eric Satie , ^[9] as well as Russian ballet by Sergey Diaghilev, music by Igor Stravinsky, artworks by Pablo Picasso and poetry by Guillaume Apollinaire .

From the mid-1910s, he entered the artistic circles of Paris , met Marcel Proust , Andre Gide , Sergei Diaghilev , Pablo Picasso , Eric Satie and others, influenced the surrealists (then came into conflict with A. Breton ), later became close to Jean Mare and Edith Piaf .

Cocteau served Proust as a prototype of the Octave dandy in the series of novels “ In Search of Lost Time ”. Toward the end of the story, an unexpected transformation took place with Octave: he “made sketches for which he himself made sketches of the scenery and costumes for the sketches; costumes and sets made a revolution in contemporary art, at least no less grandiose than the one produced by Russian ballet ” ^[10] . When Proust complained to Cocteau about Madame de Chevigne, who recognized herself in the novel and refused to read it, he remarked to him that “ Fabre wrote a book about insects, but did not require them to read it!” ^[11]

In 1914 he was drafted to the front of the First World War, served as a nurse , was demobilized for health reasons. The role of Jean Cocteau during the Second World War is controversial, resistance fighters accused him of collaborationism ^[12] . From the very beginning of the occupation, he published in La Gerbe, the “political and literary weekly” led by Chateaubriand . The magazine proclaimed the idea of ​​an Aryan, free of Bolshevism, Europe. He maintained friendly relations with the leading propagandists of the Nazi era Arno Breker and Leni Riefenstahl . The years of occupation were very productive in terms of creativity: five of his new plays were staged in Parisian theaters. Diary entries reflect Cocteau's pacifist sentiment. Nevertheless, he managed to avoid censure after the liberation of France , although he never repented of his sympathy for the Germans, in particular, continued to be friends with Brecker and Riefenstahl ^[13] .

In 1949 he was awarded the Legion of Honor. In the 1950s and 1960s, he consistently upheld the human right to conscientious objection to military service , in particular, he defended Henri Martin .

He died at home on October 11, 1963 from myocardial infarction. His sore heart could not stand the news of the death of Edith Piaf .

In 1932-1934 he lived with a Russian actress, Princess Natalya Pavlovna Paley ; the couple broke up after Paley lost her baby from Cocteau.

Jean Cocteau was bisexual , which he never denied, even during the years of German occupation (1940-1944) . From 1937 until his death in 1963, Cocteau’s life partner was actor Jean Marais , who began with roles in his films ^[14] .

The adoptive son and heir of Jean Cocteau was the French actor and artist (1925-1995).

Cocteau always considered himself a Catholic ^[15] .

Since 1916 it has been published in the American literary magazine Little Review, founded by Jane Hip and Margaret Anderson . In 1955 he was elected a member of the French Academy , the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium , the Royal Academy of Belgium. Commander of the Legion of Honor , member of the Mallarmé Academy, many national world academies, honorary president of the Cannes Film Festival , the Academy of Jazz, etc. In Milliy-la-Foret, where Jean Cocteau died, there is a house museum.

Cocteau had an extensive connection with the music and musicians of his time. Among his works are libretto and texts for dozens of operas , ballets and oratorios , among which many made a name not only to their author, but also made up the history of all French music .

“... There was an organic trusting relationship between music and Jean Cocteau ... He was physically full of music ... To talk about music and musicians, he knew how to find the perfect words, exact expressions, completely avoiding any special musical terminology ...” ^[16]

- ( Henri Sauguet , “Jean Cocteau and the Music”)

Of particular importance to Jean Cocteau was the scandalously legendary ballet Sati-Picasso Cocteau "Parade" , staged in May 1917 by the Russian ballet Diaghilev in Paris. The noisy premiere of the "first surrealistic performance" in history made the name not only of Cocteau, but also of all the other participants in this shocking performance. Communication with Eric Sati, one of the strangest composers of the 20th century , was of the greatest importance for the formation of both Cocteau's creative and personal style.

“Outwardly, Sati looked like an ordinary official: a beard, pince-nez, bowler hat and umbrella. An egoist , a fanatic , he did not recognize anything but his dogma , and tore up and metal when something contradicted her. <...> Eric Sati was my mentor, Radige was an examiner. Touching them, I saw my mistakes, although they didn’t point me to them, and even if I couldn’t fix them, at least I knew what was wrong ... ” ^[9]

- (Jean Cocteau, from the book “The Burden of Being”, 1947)

Five years later, Jean Cocteau, together with Eric Satie and with the support of a well-known critic Henri Colle, initiated the creation of the famous French group “Six” of young composers, the prototype of which was “The Mighty Handful ” or “The Russian Five”, as it was most often called in France.

“The story of our Six is similar to the story of three musketeers , of whom there were four with d'Artagnan . So I in the Six was the seventh. More precisely, this story is even more similar to “ Twenty years later ” and even to “ Viscount de Brazhelon ”, because all this was a long time ago and the sons had already replaced their fathers. The similarity is complemented by the fact that we were united not so much by aesthetics as by ethics . And this, in my opinion, is especially important in our era, obsessed with labels and labels ... " ^[17]

- (Jean Cocteau, from the book “My Sacred Monsters”, 1979)

According to researcher E. Gnezdilova, for Cocteau, the image of Orpheus is the leitmotif, the core of all creativity ^[18] .

Bibliography

Filmography

The novel “Terrible Children” was filmed in 1950 by Melville . Later, the same plot was revised by Gilbert Adair and embodied by Bernardo Bertolucci in the film "Dreamers" (2003).

The play “The Double-headed Eagle” formed the basis of the film “ The Secret of Oberwald ” by Michelangelo Antonioni , and the production of Cocteau's play “The Human Voice” is shown by Pedro Almodovar in the film “ The Law of Desire ”.

Architecture

Jean Cocteau is the author of 24 stained glass windows in the church of Saint-Maximin in the capital of Lorraine, the city of Metz (France), created in the last years of his life (1962-1963) ^[19] , and the creator of frescoes from the life of Saint Peter for the chapel in Villefranche-sur Mer .

• Imposter Tom. M .: Nikitinsky Subbotniks, 1925. Trans. with french V. Monina.
• Cocteau J. Portraits-memories. - M .: Izvestia, 1985.
• Rooster and harlequin. St. Petersburg: Crystal Publishing House, 2000 (Contents: Lyrics; Tom Impostor: Roman; Theater: Plays: Orpheus; Human Voice; Difficult Parents; Sacred Monsters; Pocket Theater; Short plays, scripts and monologues; Cinema: Unfulfilled synopsies; Conversations about cinema; Essays).
• Rooster and Harlequin: Libretto. Memories. Art. about music and theater. (Ed. Prep. M. A. Saponov; Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, Department of the History of Foreign Music.) - Moscow: Prest, 2000. (Literary monuments of the musical avant-garde; Issue 1).
• Works in 3 vols. M .: Agraf, 2001-2005.
• Portraits-memories. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of Ivan Limbach , 2002.
• The severity of being. St. Petersburg: ABC-Classic, 2003. (Contents: The Pretender of Tom; Call to Order; Gravity of Being; Conversations about Cinema; From the Book of Critical Poetry; Uncollected Essays; From Lyrics).
• Portraits-Memoirs (2nd ed.). St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbakh Publishing House , 2010.
• Horrible kids. St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbakh Publishing House , 2010.
• Poems. - Translation from fr. M. Yasnova . - in Fr. and Russian. lang - M. Text , 2012. - 253 [3] p. (Circulation 3000 copies.) ISBN 978-5-7516-1022-7
• Around the world in 80 Days. My first trip. - Translation from fr. A. Zakharevich. - M. Text , 2013 .-- 240 p.

• Aschengreen E. Jean Cocteau and the dance. Kobenhavn, 1986.
• Brosse J. Cocteau. P., 1970
• Brown F. An impersonation of angels. A biography of Jean Cocteau. NY, 1968.
• Crosland M. Jean Cocteau; a biography. New York: Knopf, 1956.
• Evans AB Jean Cocteau and his films of Orfic identity. Philadelphia, 1977.
• Fowlie W. Jean Cocteau: the history of a poet's age. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1966
• Fraigneau A. Cocteau par lui-même. P., 1957
• Jejcic M. Le savoir du poète. Œdipe selon Jean Cocteau, éd. Agalma, 1996
• Kihm J.-J. Jean Cocteau. P., 1960
• Lange M. Cocteau: Prince sans royaume. Paris: J.-C. Lattès, 1989
• Mourgue G. Cocteau.P., 1990
• Oxenhandler N. Scandal & parade: the theater of Jean Cocteau. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1957.
• Sprigge E. and Kihm J.-J. Jean Cocteau. NY, 1968.
• Steegmuller F. Cocteau. A biography. Boston-Toronto, 1970.
• Touzot J. Jean Cocteau. Lyon: Manufacture, 1989
• Touzot J. Jean Cocteau, qui êtes-vous? Lyon, 1990.
• Caizergues P. Jean Cocteau, quarante ans après: 1963-2003. Montpellier: Center d'étude du XXe siècle, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier III; Paris: Center Pompidou, 2005
• Jemma-Jejcic M. Jean Cocteau ou l'énigme du désir. Ce que le poète apprend au psychanalyste. Ramonville Saint-Agne: Editions Eres, 2006
• Hoffmeister A. On the work of the poet Cocteau. Per. Aronovich E. // Cocto J. Rooster and Harlequin. - M .: Crystal, 2000. - ISBN 5-8191-0056-5 . - S. 803-807.
• Dubrovina S. N. Mythological Theater of Cocteau (Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Orpheus, The Infernal Machine): Author. diss. for a job. scientist Art. Cand. filol. sciences. M., 2001. (neopr.) (2001). Date of treatment November 10, 2012. Archived November 20, 2012.
• Klimenok A.V. Classicism and romanticism in the drama by J. Cocteau “Two-headed eagle” (Neopr.) . Kazan Science No. 7 (2012). - An article in a scientific collection. Date of treatment November 10, 2012. Archived November 20, 2012.
• Klimenok A. V. Intertextuality in the plays of J. Cocteau of the “ancient period” // News of higher educational institutions. Volga region. Humanitarian sciences. 2013. No. 2. P. 87-93.
• Klimenok A.V. Techniques of Automatologization in the Works of Jean Cocteau // Bulletin of the Southern Federal University. Philological sciences. 2014. No. 3. P. 32-39.
• Marais J. About my life: With a poet. adj. non-ed. poems by Jean Cocteau. M .: TPF "Union Theater", 1994.
• Mare J. The Incomprehensible Jean Cocteau. M .: Text , 2003.
• Rykova N. Ya. Jean Cocteau // Cocteau J. Thomas l'imposteur. Orphée. La Voix humaine. La Machine à écrire. Poésies. M., 1976. S. 314-336.
• Trykov V.P. Cocteau // Foreign Writers. Part 1. M., 2003

• Cocteau, Jean in the library of Maxim Moshkov
• Official website (fr.)
• Trykov V.P. , Lukov Vl. A. Cocteau Jean (neopr.) . Electronic Encyclopedia "Modern French Literature" (2011). Date of treatment October 22, 2018. Archived October 22, 2018.