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The Blood of a Poet More at IMDbPro »Le sang d'un poète (original title)
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| Index | 28 reviews in total |
22 out of 31 people found the following review useful:
"A realistic documentary of unreal events!", 11 December 2005
Author:
ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
In film, Jean Cocteau found the perfect medium to portray his own
personal mythology… Though his involvement in cinema was uneven,
spasmodic and largely undertaken during later life, his fantastic
images, well-meaning amateurism and continuous self-preoccupation were
inspirational to the avant-garde and underground…
By 1930, when Cocteau made his first film, he was already an
established poet, novelist, dramatist and artist… "Le Sang d'un poète"
(The Blood of a Poet) was a characteristically romantic portrait of the
artist structured as a surreal succession of images centered on a
private mythology: desiring immortality, the poet, martyr to
creativity, must first pass through a mirror into a deathly private
dream-world… Financed, like "L'Age d'Or," by the Vicomte de Noailles,
its indulgent celebration of artists in general (and, therefore,
Cocteau in particular) makes it inferior to Buñuel's film, but its
strong, bizarre symbolism is often alarming…
18 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Celluloid Surrealism, 10 August 2001
Author:
Schlockmeister from Midnight Movie Land
Excellent example of early surrealism on film. It is like going through a dream in which images come and go unbidden and with little apparent sense. This film is to be viewed in exactly that spirit. Switch off the need within you to make sense of it, to make it fit a linear state of mind and you will get the most out of it, and be a lot closer to what the director intended. Let the images wash over you, respond to them as images, not as tidy stories with beginnings, middles and endings that we are used to seeing in films. Like a dream it has it's haunting, almost familiar parts that we can know and recognize as well as the parts of our unconscious that we do not see as clearly but still we dream of them. Too bad surrealism in film never took off more than it did. Here we see a hint of the possibilities that still lie before us. Recommended highly.
14 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
One of the greatest surrealist films ever made, but prior knowledge of the movement is recommended going in, 6 March 2007
Author:
TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA
This is an art film, plain and simple. Its one of those surrealist
films that has no actual narrative, just a series of seemingly
unconnected bizarre sequences. How much you enjoy "Blood of a Poet"
depends on how much you appreciate (or have knowledge of) surrealism.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the original movement and "Blood of a
Poet" is nearly as compelling as either "Un chien andalou" or "Dreams
That May Come True". Its beautiful, lyrical, and highly emotional and
personal (if completely abstract). Its as close as cinema can get to
actual poetry. Jean Cocteau has created a truly magnificent piece of
work.
This is similar to many other surrealist films in that fact you're not
supposed to get it. You're supposed to understand the emotion the
artist puts into his work and the meaning (if there is any) is entirely
open to interpretation. Similar to "El Topo" and "Eraserhead", the
meaning isn't clear but the feeling completely comes through. Unlike
those two previously mentioned films, "Blood of a Poet" is a decidedly
more lighthearted work despite some (rather shocking for the time)
violence. If you're into surrealism, by all means check out "Blood of a
Poet". I certainly enjoyed it, but I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend
it to most moviegoers. (8/10)
12 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Pure Experimental Filmmaking, 12 June 2004
Author:
Eumenides-0 from Portugal
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Blood Of A Poet is the first movie I've seen where 'like' or 'dislike'
are out of question. It resists any attempt at entertaining and satisfying
the viewer, it's a movie made for itself. Although there are actors, there
are no characters, there's not a plot or a storyline, and the dialogue is
just another element of confusion.
Cocteau made it deliberately so; capturing the full visual power of cinema,
the filmmaker dazzles the viewer with wave upon wave of cryptic, beautiful,
symbolism-heavy images that barely have cohesion between themselves. As it
is, one is not supposed to 'enjoy' this movie, just to take in what is
shown.
I am still a defender of cinema as a storytelling medium, the natural modern
inheritor of theatre as a way to dramatise life, usually for our
entertainment first, and, perhaps, only self-awareness later. However, I
can't help respecting the importance experimental filmmaking has. For their
audacity to produce uncompromising movies like The Blood Of A Poet, An
Andaluzian Dog, The Golden Age and others, filmmakers like Luís Buñuel and
Jean Cocteau have created a source of ideas, techniques, possibilities and
themes from which more traditional filmmakers have taken ideas for the past
70 years, which have shaped cinema as we know it today.
A movie that has its own surrealist roots in earlier surrealist literature -
Alice Through The Looking-Glass - Cocteau's debut movie has insinuated
itself in the work of filmmakers as daring as him...
... the bourgeois playing cards under stree balconies that look like theatre
balconies, with audience to boot watching the game, reminds me of the
bourgeois eating at a table when a curtain raises and they realise they're
on a stage before an audience, in Buñuel's The Discreet Charm Of The
Bourgeoisie.
An artist who falls through a glass into a strange world of nonsense is very
much like a scene in Lynch's Fire Walk With Me, where Laura Palmer goes
through a painting; and in the last Twin Peaks's episode, after Coop is
stabbed inside the Black Lodge, time walks backwards, just as it does in the
room where a group of people are shoot before a firing squad, in Cocteau's
movie.
The Blood Of A Poet is a movie that in the end resists full understanding,
but welcomes endless interpretations, many of which are fascinating in
themselves. A movie I'd never recommend to anyone wanting to have a 'good
time,' but one of the most amazing movies I've ever seen in my
life!
9 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Cocteau remains one of the forefathers of the art-film and of the 20th Century surrealism movement, 24 August 2003
Author:
MisterWhiplash from United States
Jean Cocteau's first film subject- Blood of a Poet (episodes 1-4), all takes
place between a second's worth of measurement in time. A chimney falls to
the ground in a scene of pure demolishment, and for the more mysterious
glimpses in the film we see them happening in a second's flash as well (if
you blink you'll miss it).
Before I saw Blood of a Poet, I figured it would be a debut Cocteau
attempting a Bunuel type of filmic showcase of a different, though somewhat
simple story with anarchic, subversively funny dream shots of a purely
surreal nature. Then, there is the first shot, the opening image of the
man, the introducer, like a ghost or a character in a Greek tragedy. The
first episode is "Wounded Hand of the Scars of the Poet". Right from the
music a viewer can realize Cocteau's picture is apart from Bunuel's
achievement(s). The latter has a technique of classical music (Wagner over
a scene of imposed seduction, for example) while Cocteau has the music as
inviting, jubilant, even, however all the wigged man is doing is painting a
face. It's almost like a cartoon, and for a fleeting instant, the face on
the painting has lips that move. This is more than the usual surrealistic
stoke of the brush- this is the first sign in motion picture history of an
artist (i.e. painter) converting ideas into an episodic format. The purpose
is the same- abstract thinking- but the format is of a different
mind-set.
That's the first episode, that gets the viewer in, as another wigged man
enters- sort of shocked- and exits like the wind. A wire face spins and the
lips moving again like the painting he created just before. It could be the
illusion of a lifetime, or a trick of the white light seeping out of the
crevices in the lips in his hand, but the man, like us, can't ignore it
until it is no more. That Cocteau has an intended poetic voice here in his
brand of surrealism is a bonus of sorts to the intellectual type of audience
member. And, it's not a downer to those who might not be interested in a
filmmaker's ego- the artistry overcomes the ego, for the most-part anyway.
The second episode is titled "Do Walls Have Ears?", when the artist gets rid
of the mouth, but now the man, the artist, is trapped in the room with the
statue as the guardian. This is the first sign of the instantly
narcissistic mood of Cocteau in the statue, a director in and of itself
delivering enigmatic, haunting statement the mirror, again, shows with
narcissism- the necessary narcissism, the kind to know one's self AND how he
falls within himself like water. As the artist goes through the abyss, he
winds up at the hotel (right in-between this Cocteau throws in a cut-away of
a man disappearing after appearing for a number of seconds, creepy in its
non-sense). Then, the artist views an execution through a key-hole in a
door.
(Oh, did I mention that some of the dialog is quite possibly backwards-
otherwise, what else could be the explanation of the point of it, except for
random gibberish?)
Themes of suicide come up, then, soon enough after, the artist tires of this
to the point of him leaving, climbing on the walls. At the end of this
totally hypnotic two-parter, we see the reason, at the last for a clear
instant, his emotion is now purely terror (by breaking the mirror, Cocteau
tries to break through his own narcissistic tendencies).
The 3rd and 4th episodes are another kind of two-parter, and they center on
a snowball fight and a card game, respectively. "The snowball fight" is
entirely representative of the (true) brutal, near-primitiveness of the
realities that go with childhood, leading up to a battered snowball victim
at the side of an elegant man and woman dealing a game with each other.
Suddenly, during this ("The Profanation of the Host" as it's appropriately
titles) surrealism is at an astonishing height for its time. One shot, in
particular, seemed to be an inspiration for a part of the Jupiter landing in
2001. A card is lifted from the boy, an assist in the game, and the man
ends up losing, the boy (and the black man) revealing disgust in the
elegance of the situation of the game.
That's when it hit me, the message of Blood of a Poet. Behind beauty, as
well as behind one's own desires and vision, even if we can't entirely
explain why it's beautiful or why we hold these desires for ourselves is the
darkness that beckons (perhaps in the slightest of moments of our lives) in
our deepest, most assuredly dream-like delusions of grandeur. From this,
you could gather, Blood of a Poet seems like it may not be for everyone,
certainly not for those who can't even remember one dream from their entire
life (personally I thought it contained inklings of pretentious
gobledy-gook). But its nature is something to look for, and if you only see
the movie once, you might not be sorry. Grade: A
14 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Dream Like Expressionism meets Poetic Surrealism!, 6 August 2005
Author:
NateManD from Bloomsburg PA
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!
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
French propaganda show, 19 September 2011
Author:
(otto_schitburger@yahoo.com) from Düssledork
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
In same time, an error and a masterpiece. A film in which history is only an political instrument. Strong, hilarious and aggressive. And a movie in which every detail is explore in fantastic way. So, the result is a schizoid work. Shadows of Jirinovsky and medieval air. A fake Ukraine and romantic sticks. A huge picture and a boring manifesto. But the delicate fact is the absence of Coctaeu. The director, in past maker of spectacular pages of lost history, is in this sad case only organiser of a French propaganda show. Enthusiastic and full of good intentions, he crushes the original story. Blood of a Poet is impressive; but only ornaments. The wood is far of the public. It is difficult to say if "The Blood of a Poet" is a disaster. The crumbs are good taste. The cake is old and strange. But the memory is more tempt by the beautiful coins and freaky costumes.
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A realistic documentary of unreal events, 10 December 2007
Author:
ackstasis from Australia
Though my experience is undoubtedly limited, I'm not usually a fan of
surrealism or experimental cinema, usually dismissing them as exercises
in pointlessness. However, my duty as a film buff tempted me to try my
hands at Jean Cocteau's "Orphic trilogy", starting with 'Le Sang d'un
poète / The Blood of a Poet (1930) {the remaining two films are, of
course, 'Orpheus (1950)' and 'The Testament of Orpheus (1960)'}.
Luckily the film was rather short, because I can't say that – on first
viewing, at least – I got much out of it. There is certainly some very
interesting imagery, and Cocteau has fun making use of his visual
trickery {I particularly liked how the poet fell through the mirror},
but, once the hour was over, I simply didn't feel any more entranced,
inspired or shocked than I had been prior to watching the film. Call it
inexperience if you must, but I just didn't "get" what the film was
trying to communicate, if anything at all.
As a random collection of bizarre and occasionally-invigorating images,
'The Blood of a Poet' works to a certain extent, but, if it ever aimed
to shock its audiences, the effect is never anything to rival its
surrealistic contemporaries, mostly notably Luis Buñuel's 'Un chien
andalou / An Andalusian Dog (1929).' In Cocteau's keen eye for
mind-tripping camera-work, there is certainly merit, though I doubt
that the mere inventiveness of the visuals is the reason why the film
is held in such reverence. Is the film simply a collection of random
episodes designed to evoke an emotional response, or is there a deeper
subtext that I'm overlooking? One interesting theory is that 'The Blood
of a Poet' depicts the suffering of a poet, of an artist, and how this
immense suffering is transformed into a work of art, something truly
beautiful {one particular sequence supports this hypothesis, as a young
girl responds to her cruel maltreatment by learning to fly}.
However, beyond this primitive inkling of a theory, I find myself
thoroughly baffled by the events depicted in the film, which largely
strike me as being random. In an essay he wrote about his film
{included with the excellent Criterion Collection DVD}, Cocteau states
that 'The Blood of a Poet' draws nothing from dreams or symbols, but
that it, "as far as the former are concerned… initiates their
mechanism, and by letting the mind relax, as in sleep, it lets memories
entwine, move and express themselves freely. As for the latter, it
rejects them, and substitutes acts, or allegories of these acts, that
the spectator can make symbols of if he wishes." The precise meaning of
these words still eludes me, but it sounds as though the director
didn't ever intend for the film to make any sense, and that it is up to
the audience to derive their own greater meaning from the collection of
sounds and images. Maybe Cocteau knew exactly what he was doing, or
maybe he just managed to convince us that he did.
A strange and baffling film for fans of surrealism mainly, 27 December 2012
Author:
Red-Barracuda from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Surrealist cinema was at the height of its powers between the mid 1920's to the mid 1930's. For obvious reasons, the silent era had been particularly well suited to visually strong films. Like Luis Buñuel's L'âge d'or, The Blood of a Poet is one of the later films from this period. And both incorporate limited sound. In the case of this movie it is mainly music, with a little synchronised dialogue. It's a film that gives the impression of having an overall purpose and meaning but I have to admit, I really have no idea what it was. I found it baffling but interesting enough in a strange dream-like way. And at 50 minutes it hardly overstays its welcome. It's consistently well photographed and there are memorable sequences such as the hotel of strange rooms and the falling into a mirror moment. So, mainly, the film was of interest to me as an example of creative surrealism. But as to what it means? Ah, well, your own your own there I'm afraid…
The Hotel of Dramatic Follies, 25 August 2012
Author:
morrison-dylan-fan from United Kingdom
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Heading home a few nights ago,I got a phone call from my dad telling me
that he had picked up something special which he expected I would like
taking a look at.Not having a clue what to expect,I was thrilled when I
realised that he had picked up about 40 different "Euro-Art Films in
Widescreen on Video! (I later found out that he had picked each movie
up for 50p,thanks to the seller at a pawnbroker's shop being about to
bin them all,due to them being "Videos")Checking the running times of
the films,I discovered that the first film by Jean Cocteau, (who,thanks
to a Ridley Scott audio commentary,I found had directed a magical
adaptation of Beauty and the Beast,which I had watched a number of
times during my childhood) was the title with the shortest running time
in the collection,that led to me deciding that my first "choice" from
the collection of Euro-Art Films, (which still contained a receipt from
HMV in 1994 for 17 pounds 49p!) would be Cocteau's first movie.
The plot:
Part 1:The Wounded Hand: Being unhappy about a painting that he has
been attempting to draw,a poet is startled when the mouth of the
painting starts to move.Quickly rubbing out the painting,the poet finds
out that his plan to destroy the painting has gone a bit awry,when he
notices that the paintings mouth has transferred to one of his
hands.Horrifed,but also fascinated by this weird incident,the poet
experiments with the mouth,until he ends up transferring it from his
hand to the face of a statue.
Part 2:Do The Walls Have Ears?: Finding the now talking statue to have
a hypnotic like quality,the poet follows it orders by stepping into a
hotel placed in an alternative like universe named:The Hotel of
Dramatic Follies.Being horrified over the scenes that he witnesses of
peoples follies,the poet shoots himself to get free from the statue's
control and ends up smashing the statue into a thousand pieces.
Part 3:The Snowball Fight.Since having smashed the statue to bits,a new
statue has been build in the former's place,celebrating the poet that
destroyed the old statue.Playing snowballs near by the statue,a young
boy is killed,when a snowball containing marble hits him.
Part 4:The Profanation of the Host: After dying,the boy's body lays
under a table where some card sharks are playing,as his guardian angel
attempts to absorb the boys soul,and the mystical power of the once
broken statue seems to be getting more powerful than ever before.
View on the film:
For what would turn out to be the last film that he would make for 13
years,mostly related to the studio having to hold back from bringing
the movie out for 2 years,due to all of the controversy that came from
their 1930 Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali collaboration film:L'age
d'Or.Writer/director/narrator Jean Cocteau does a clever mix of using
"the poet" struggles with his artwork, (which includes an eye-brow
raising scene,of the poet laying in bed with the paintings talking
mouth on his hand,that he decides to "experiment" with, by placing the
hand somewhere on himself that is out of frame (my guess being a sore
knee) as a foundation for the more surreal images,with Cocteau showing
that no matter how much he tries,the poet is unable to be separated
from his work,to the point where a statue inspired by him,takes the
places of a statue that he himself created.Along with the poet's
struggle with art,Cocteau makes The Hotel of Dramatic Follies a
terrific place to explore,filled with opium smokers and
hermaphrodite's,whilst also turning the winter wonderland of The
Snowball Fight into a wickedly dark nightmare tale.Creating a feeling
that the movie is building towards a wildly
surreal,dream/nightmare-like ending,Cocteau sadly stumbles during the
last section of the film,by not featuring the presence of Enrique
Riveros as the poet,which leads to the ending feeling unfocused and
completely disjointed to what had taken place in the rest of the film.
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