Old School Reviews: Jean Cocteau, The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d'un poete)

Blood of a Poet, The (1930)

Director: Jean Cocteau

Stars: Enrique Rivero

Release Company: The Criterion Collection

MPAA Rating: NR

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Cocteau, Jean
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"Such is the role of poetry: It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically."

--Jean Cocteau

A true Renaissance man, Jean Cocteau's film career reflects his eclectic artistic career. The poet, dramatist, novelist, graphic artist tried his hand at directing, screenwriting, acting, producing, and took on the role of creative critic, offering intriguing ideas on the artistic merit of film. Although best known for his 1946 masterpiece, La Belle et la Bête (The Beauty and the Beast), Cocteau's most influential work is found in his Orphic trilogy—three films fancifully based on the myth of Orpheus. Primarily exploring the creative process itself, Cocteau spaced these poetic visual tomes over three decades, beginning with Le Sang d'un Poèt (The Blood of a Poet) in 1930. Common comparisons to L'Âge d'or would only anger Buñuel and his fellow Surrealists, who belittled Cocteau as a "literary poseur." Surrealists strove continually to shock, and Cocteau's films were too contrived for their tastes. Nevertheless, Cocteau remained true to his artistic vision and created films unlike the norm; thus, retaining a lasting place in cinematic history.

If you've seen Buñuel's early surrealistic work, Cocteau's first film plays like a relaxing walk in the park. While Buñuel juxtaposes imagery to jar the senses, Cocteau aims to stimulate the intellect about the creative process. The "plot" of The Blood of a Poet is divided into four sections that are bookended by the image of a collapsing smokestack, an image that amplifies the Orpheus myth about the connection between creativity and destruction. To summarize the plot is irrelevant since the essential point that Cocteau attempts to convey is the importance of experiencing the imagery for yourself. As he states in a lecture (thankfully preserved on the Criterion DVD),

"Life creates great images without realizing it. The drama on Calvary did not take place for the benefit of painters. When I was working, I wasn't thinking of anything, and this is why one must let the film act like Auric's accompanying music. . ."

For the uninitiated an outline of the "plot" may be helpful, but the best preparation would be first gaining an artistic sensibility. Even if you don't consider yourself creative, open mindedness would act as a pre-requisite since this won't play like any straightforward narrative. It's only 50 minutes long and doesn't contain the same tongue-in-cheek mind numbing monotony that much of Andy Warhol's underground cinema induces, so most will find Cocteau's debut experiment palatable.

Immediately following a falling industrial smokestack, the camera switches to the inside of a studio where a handsome poet-artist (Errique Rivero) discovers that the mouth he has drawn on a portrait takes on a life of its own and transfers to his palm. The first two sections follow the poet, whose bare chest serves as thinly veiled reference to Cocteau's self-avowed homosexuality. As his creation begins to take over his body, the poet falls through a mirror into initial darkness before surfacing in a hotel that defies gravity. After crawling through the hallway and peeking in keyholes at strange sights, the poet returns to his room, where he destroys a statue and instantly transforms into a statue himself. The third and fourth sections are titled "Snowball fight" (based loosely on a childhood incident) and "Profanation of the host" (based on a Poalo Ucello painting). Both end with a central character bleeding from the head to achieve the "mortal tedium of immortality."

Mostly a silent film with inter-titles, Blood of a Poet contains sparse spoken dialogue, but plenty of provocative images. Although it may seem as pretentious as the Surrealists claimed back in the 1930's, this represents one of the most sincere efforts to capture the creative process on film and deserves credit. Very rarely have any cinematic attempts on this theme succeeded, so Cocteau's initial film stands as a landmark. Since he knew practically nothing about filmmaking when he took on the project and never swayed from attempting to explore this same theme through two subsequent Orpheus projects, no one can doubt Cocteau's earnestness. Despite continual criticism from some of his artistic peers and understandable lack of recognition from mainstream viewers, Cocteau has withstood the slings and arrows and maintains a significant place in film history. As he once stated, "Poets must give their all in order to gain approval."