COCTEAU Jean - Lot 108

Lot n° 108
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Estimation :
1000 - 1500 EUR
COCTEAU Jean - Lot 108
COCTEAU Jean Autograph MANUSCRIT signed "Jean Cocteau", Replies to spectators of The Two-headed Eagle,[1948]; 6 pages in-4 with blue ballpoint pen on the back of Bailiff's House letterhead. Interesting explanations about 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. Cocteau has carefully divided his answers into fourteen numbered points and they allow him to respond to criticisms of all kinds addressed to him. Sometimes tinged with impatience, sometimes very educational, they shed light on the ambitions that governed this work and do not hide anything of the difficulties encountered in its realization. On the aesthetic choices of the settings: "It has been said of The Two-headed Eagle that it was the triumph of bad taste. Of course. It could not be better said. Christian Bérard and Wakhevitch wanted to paint the bad taste of the rulers. We're after the Goncurts. Mallarmé, Manet, the Impressionists discovered Japan. Queens and great actresses are inspired by it. The Eagle, in addition to the village hall copied from the Prince of Wales' pagoda in Bath, shows the junk of Marie Bashkirtseff and Sarah Bernhardt's workshops. On the negative reactions of some critics: "The so-called elite and our judges are unconsciously playing a game that our new game disturbs. The public, on the other hand, does not play any games and adopts ours if it pleases them and on the contrary, if they break it out of their habits that tire them". On his performers: "I shot in the Eagle five hundred meters of film on Edwige FEUILLÈRE who speaks to herself. Without it, this tour de force was impossible. It becomes possible because she is dying with the genius of a Chinese actor and because the intensity of MARAIS' silence is worth her efforts and the authority of her word. On the constr
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