Jean COCTEAU - Art, his youth, poetry, Picasso, etc.

Jean Cocteau (1889.1963)

Autograph manuscript.

Six pages in-4°. Slnd (circa 1960)

Superb and long autobiographical manuscript evoking Art, understanding oneself, Cézanne, Proust, Diaghilev, Picasso, poetry and the war of 1914.

“I only understood at the age of 20 the role of a work and what poetry was. »

 Cocteau here answers the questions of André Fraigneau who published a biography of Cocteau in 1957 and a book of interviews with him.

1- Miro. 3 people including a monstrous one with a hundred thousand ears. The Baudelaire charge. Film and radio. Monstrous edition of a book. The appeal.

2- Agoraphobia and claustrophobia – contacts or dialogue for. Need to get moving with words. Alone I empty myself and I arrive at the emptiness that scares me. I am not an intellectual. I do not think so . I have to act so that my thoughts get going.

3- Conspiracy of silence and worst: conspiracy of noise. I live in the countryside so as not to meet the man they have invented for me – who they have made me to be – I would not like to know him. This conspiracy of noise – this stampede – terrible journalists. Trueer than the true, more false than the false. As no one puts me under investigation and my various occupations appear to journalists in the form of disorder, I have to put things in order within myself – I have to put my house in order.

4- Critics have a great excuse. I am difficult to follow because I do not rely on any group, on any external force . Neither cafes – Political party – Church – Normal School. I have the guilt of the innocent guilty of all potential crimes . Merlo Ponty-Paul Valéry and Giraudoux. Prestige of the bad student. Bad student strong in theme.

5- The work of art must be, as I read in a catalog of trappings for weddings and banquets, an object difficult to pick up – a work is an object difficult to pick up – that said there is no of a work of art without a moral .

5 bis- not morality but a morality. The work of art must be a moral . An intense, inflexible sign despite all appearances of dispersion.

6- No, and I thank you for asking me this question. I started with too much luck in this environment etc. I only understood at the age of 20 the role of a work and what poetry was. I decided at 20 to no longer play hooky from school but to sink into myself , into this terrible gift, into this unknown mine, to risk encountering firedamp. Moreover, this new attitude coincided with the war of 14. The war helped me, in the sense that people's minds were occupied with current events while our current events are not current . This tornado of direct news left us free to act in the secret areas which are the privilege of France and its capital. It was not without difficulty, my only decision made me suspect to everyone, left and right, among those who do not consider this current news and among those who are considering it but who were lucky enough not to have been distorted by this environment.

7- 1900. This is a typical example.  1900 was a terrible year for me: the death of Nietzche and, afterward, of course, a great pit of stupidity . But let's not forget that our history and our dates are not those of everyone. Genius painters and musicians create real history. They were made fun of and now the news exalts them. Cézanne died in 1906. Renoir and Degas painted. Proust wrote in the shadows. Debussy, etc.

8- At the pharmacist. Besides, the projection was because the book is sold as a healing remedy – which is dangerous since it is being put on a metal sheet.

9- Nijinsky. Fireworks (the coronation). Stravinsky a real influence of the Russian ballets. Diaghilev, who told me at the time of my great stupidity: “Astonish me,” is astonished by the extraordinary effervescence of French painters, poets and musicians. What is unique and specific to Paris is that Picasso nor Stravinsky are French . For Matisse, Braque, etc. Auric and Poulenc worked for this ballet which is only Russian through its dancers.

10- My time. I sometimes forget the years and I am guilty for a biographer.