COCTEAU Jean - Lot 107

Lot n° 107
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Estimation :
1000 - 1200 EUR
COCTEAU Jean - Lot 107
COCTEAU Jean Autograph MANUSCRIT, Before the Two-headed Eagle,[1948]: 2.5 pages in-4 with blue ballpoint pen on the back of letterhead sheets from the Bailiff's House in Milly. Presentation of his film The Two-headed Eagle. L'Aigle à deux têtes, shot in 1947 and released in September 1948, is the cinematographic adaptation of the play created in Brussels in October 1946 and in Paris on 22 December 1946 by Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais. At the beginning of the manuscript, Cocteau noted:"(if it is necessary for me to speak)". Cocteau declares that in his film he wanted to "stifle the intellect under action and make my characters act more with their thoughts than they speak them. I pushed this method to the point of inventing an almost heraldic psychology for them, that is, as far from the usual psychology as, on the coats of arms, the animals represented in them bear little resemblance to the animals as they exist. For example, a smiling lion, a unicorn kneeling in front of a virgin, an eagle carrying a banner in its beak. This does not mean that this psychology is false, but that it expresses itself more really, more violently than usual"... After the "mechanism of souls", he came to his work with Christian Bérard to recreate "a whole atmosphere specific to these royal houses where what is called decadence among poets and which is none other than their particular approach is expressed by a certain madness, by a naïve struggle against conformism and received customs. Only one thing has been borrowed from history - it is the final stab wound and the fact that a famous empress could walk for a long time with this knife planted under the shoulder blade. The rest (in terms of places, characters and actions) is my imagination alone. An autographed envelope is attached to Mrs. de Gonzague Frick (1.X.1956).
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