The Blood of a Poet

Infobox Film
name = The Blood of a Poet


caption =
imdb_rating =
director = Jean Cocteau
producer =
writers = Jean Cocteau
starring = Lee Miller
Pauline Carton
Odette Talazacuez
Feral Benga
Enrique Rivero
Jean Desbordes
music = Georges Auric
cinematography = Georges Périnal
editing =
distributor = The Criterion Collection
released = flagicon|France 20 January, 1930
flagicon|USA 13 November, 1933
runtime = 55 min.
country = France
language = French
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by = Orpheus
amg_id = 1:6150
imdb_id = 0021331

"The Blood of a Poet" (French: "Le Sang d'un Poete") (1930) 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 aerialist Barbette.cite news
last = Liner
first = Elaine
title = Swingers: "Barbette" soars to greatness with the tragic tale of a trapeze artist
work = Dallas Observer
date = 2002-06-13
url = http://www.dallasobserver.com/2002-06-13/culture/swingers/
accessdate = 2008-05-19] It is the first part of the Orphic Trilogy, which is continued in "Orphée" (1950) and concluded with "Testament of Orpheus" (1960).

Production

"The Blood of a Poet" was funded by Charles, Vicomte de Noailles, who gave Cocteau 1,000,000 francs to make it. Cocteau invited the Vicomte and his wife, along with several of their friends, to appear in a scene as a theatre party; they talked amongst themselves and, on cue, began applauding. Upon seeing the completed film, they were horrified to learn that they were applauding a game of cards that ended with a suicide, which had been filmed separately. They refused to let Cocteau release the film with their scene included, so Cocteau re-shot it with the famed female impersonator Barbette and some extras.cite news
last = Steegmuller
first = Francis
coauthors =
title = An Angel, A Flower, A Bird
work = The New Yorker
pages =
language =
publisher =
date = 1969-09-27
url =
accessdate = ]

Plot

"The Blood of a Poet" is divided into several sections. In section one, an artist sketches a face and is startled when its mouth starts moving. He rubs out the mouth, only to discover that it has transferred to the palm of his hand. After experimenting with the hand for a while and falling asleep, the artist awakens and places the mouth over the mouth of a female statue. In section two, the statue speaks to the artist, cajoling him into passing through a mirror. The mirror links to a hotel and the artist peers through several keyholes, witnessing such people as an opium smoker and a hermaphrodite. The artist is handed a gun and a disembodied voice instructs him how to shoot himself in the head. He shoots himself but does not die. The artist cries out that he has seen enough and returns through the mirror. He smashes the statue with a mallet. In the third section, some students are having a snowball fight. An older boy throws a snowball at a younger boy, but the snowball turns out to be a chunk of marble. The young boy dies from the impact. In the final section, a card sharp plays a game with a woman on a table set up over the body of the dead boy. A theatre party looks on. The card sharp extracts an Ace of hearts from the dead boy's breast pocket. The boy's guardian angel appears and absorbs the dead boy. He also removes the Ace of hearts from the card sharp's hand and retreats up a flight of stairs and through a door. Realizing he has lost, the card sharp commits suicide as the theatre party applauds. The woman player transforms into the formerly smashed statue and walks off through the snow, leaving no footprints. In the film's final moments the statue is shown with a lyre.

Intercut through the film, surrealist images appear, including spinning wire models of human heads and rotating double-sided masks.

Delayed release

Shortly after its completion, rumors began to circulate that the film contained an anti-Christian message. This, combined with the riotous reception of another controversial Noailles-produced film, L'Âge d'Or, led to Charles de Noailles' expulsion from the famous Jockey-Club de Paris, and he was even threatened with excommunication by the Catholic church. The furor caused the release of "The Blood of a Poet" to be delayed for over a year.

Notes

External links

*imdb title|id=0021331|title=The Blood of a Poet
* [http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=67&eid=21&section=essay Criterion Collection essay by Jean Cocteau]