Cinema
The Blood of a Poet
Le Sang d'un poète
Jean Cocteau · 1930
Synopsis
A poet watches the mouth of a face he has just drawn come to life; it passes into his hand, then onto a statue, which invites him to step through a mirror. On the other side, he wanders the corridor of a hotel and witnesses strange scenes there. The film strings together four episodes linked by dream logic, from a snowball fight between schoolchildren to a game of cards.
Context
The film was commissioned and financed by Viscount Charles de Noailles, who also financed Buñuel's L'Âge d'or. Completed in September 1930, it was not released until 20 January 1932, held back for more than a year by the scandal over Buñuel's film. The photographer Lee Miller makes her only appearance on screen in it, in the role of the statue. Cocteau rejected any imposed reading: he said he had achieved his aim if everyone found in it a meaning of their own.
Who it is for
A medium-length film of about fifty minutes, made of visions more than plot, to be taken as a series of waking dreams.
Prizes and reception
First part of Cocteau's Orphic trilogy, with Orphée and Le Testament d'Orphée; the Criterion Collection has gathered them in a box set.
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