The Blood of a Poet (1932) Le sang d'un poète (original title)

Director:

Jean Cocteau

Writer:

Jean Cocteau

Release Date:

20 May 2010 (Greece)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

A young artist draws a face at a canvas on his easel. Suddenly the mouth on the drawing comes into life and starts talking...

Plot Keywords:

Statue | Artist | Snowball Fight | Mirror | Hermaphrodite

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Enrique Rivero	...	Poet
Elizabeth Lee Miller	...	Statue (as Lee Miller)
Pauline Carton
Odette Talazac
Jean Desbordes	...	Louis XV Friend
Fernand Dichamps
Lucien Jager
Féral Benga	...	Black Angel
Barbette
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Cocteau	...	Bit Part (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Cocteau

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean Cocteau

Produced by
Le Vicomte de Noailles	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Georges Auric

Cinematography by
Georges Périnal

Film Editing by
Jean Cocteau

Production Design by
Jean d'Eaubonne		(as Jean Gabriel d'Eaubonne)

Costume Design by
Coco Chanel

Production Companies

• Vicomte de Noailles

Distributors

• Edward T. Ricci (1933) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Home Vision Cinema (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Continental Home Vídeo (1995) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Continental Home Vídeo (1995) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Grapevine Video (1990) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Le sang d'un poète" - France (original title)

Runtime:

USA:55 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone)

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Vicomte de Noailles

Trivia:

Filming was shot between April and September 1930.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005)

Dream Like Expressionism meets Poetic Surrealism!

Jean Cocteau's "the Blood of a Poet" is a very strange film. Even by todays standards, but I can't imagine the response in 1930. The film was funded by the same producer of Bunuel/Dali's "L Age D Or"(1930). Cocteau considered the film expressionism even though it feels like surrealism. His goal was to film a poem. In the beginning of the film we witness a chimney collapse. Then we are introduced to an artist. He is doing a sketch and erases the mouth. The mouth appears on his hand and starts to talk. Then when his hand touches the statue, it comes to life. He enters the mirror and it takes him to a strange hotel, behind each door is something bizarre happening. One room a boy is trying to fly, another room there's a strange man with a spiral. Then the artist goes crazy and shoots himself. Then the film goes on to a dreamlike violent snowball fight and game of cards, and another suicide attempt. Very unique, highly surreal with slight homo-erotic overtones; "The Blood of a Poet" feels like waking up from a crazy dream!