Research Page

The Art of Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau, a French artist in the early- to mid-twentieth century, had his fingers in a lot of artistic pies. A painter, poet, memoirist, playwright and filmmaker, Cocteau once was well-known in his own country and abroad. Upon his death, because he was French and (therefore) pretentious, America began to forget him.

I know him only because I’ve seen three of his movies, the Orphic Trilogy—The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1949) and The Testament of Orpheus (1959). These films, especially the first and last, are convention-busting, surreal, meandering narratives lacking much popular appeal. Any viewer could point out Cocteau’s symbols (such as disembodied floating wire-frame human heads twirling unnoticed in the center of a room in Blood), but it seems unlikely that many viewers could coherently interpret those symbols.

My research will attempted to answer questions I have about Cocteau’s work. Today he is remembered primarily for his films—was that always the case? What interpretations have been offered for the symbolism in the Orphic Trilogy? This topic should appeal to anyone interested in artsy movies, in Surrealism, or in twentieth-century French art.

Websites devoted to the Art of Jean Cocteau

The Jean Cocteau Website
This has biographies of Cocteau and his close circle of intimates, including Pablo Picasso. You can see stills and read information about each of the films. There's a slide-show of Cocteau’s paintings; a list of published books by Cocteau; and a page with links to vendors of Cocteau’s art. The site is somewhat sparse, but it's an attractive introductin to Cocteau.

The Jean Cocteau Website
Similar to the other site by this name but more comprehensive, the site concentrates on extensive bibliographic information and unique photos of some of Cocteau’s murals. A few broken links and some horrible graphics hamper the experience.

Jean Cocteau, the Mask of Orpheus and Narcissus
This is an online transcript of a critical paper about the Trilogy’s middle film. It's an astounding analysis. The page’s presentation is poor, but the content is not. The paper presumes its reader understands both English and French.

Internet Movie Database: Jean Cocteau
This links to a complete Cocteau filmography, with links to thorough information on each of his films. Occasionally a detail is incorrect, but the sheer mass of minutiae here makes up for that. The page contains cast and crew lists, shooting locations, release dates and links to reviews. This is absolutely an essential site for learning about Cocteau’s films.

Jean Cocteau
Here is an excellent biography of Cocteau. The site also provides a good filmography/bibliography. It's smaller than the other links above. That's because this is just one part of a larger site devoted to science-fiction and fantasy cinema. (Cocteau's films contain fantastic elements, though they don't follow traditional genre narratives at all.)

Print/video sources
--Cocteau, Jean. Orphée: The Play and the Film. Oxford: Blackwell, 1976. Davis PQ2605.O15 O76 1976.
--Evans, Arthur. Jean Cocteau and His Films of Orphic Identity. Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, 1977. Davis PN1998.A3 C764.
--Tsakiridou, Cornelia A. Reviewing Orpheus: Essays on the Cinema and Art of Jean Cocteau. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1997. Davis AP2 .B887 vol. 41, no. 1.
--Cocteau, Jean. Orpheus. 86 min. 1949. Videocassette. UL NonPrint 65-V582.

Print sources also available online
--Druckenbroad, Andrew. (2000, Nov. 14). Two Takes on Cocteau Work Compelling. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Online], 10 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].
--Goodman, Peter. (1993, Oct. 29). Glass Misses With Orphee. Newsday [Online], 13 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].
--Smith, Mark Chalon. (1991, Jan. 24). The Dreamy, Foggy World of Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus.” Los Angeles Times [Online], 9 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].
--Tommasini, Anthony. (1993, May 24). Orpheus with a Touch of Glass. Newsday [Online], 8 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].
--Turan, Kenneth. (1992, Feb. 25). Cocteau’s 1946 “Beauty”: Pure Magic. Los Angeles Times [Online], 9 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].
--Turan, Kenneth. (1995, Nov. 11). A Masterwork, Reworked. Los Angeles Times [Online], 11 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS [2002, Feb. 4].Section IV

Noted Author Takes on Internet Pirates

Get the scoop on Harlan Ellison's lawsuit to protect authors' intellectal property on the Web here.

Back to the Homepage. Or visit my Resume / Portfolio

Created for Deb Aikat's Electronic Information Sources class
@ The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

feedback? i care deeply. jhurtz@email.unc.edu