Main Cast: Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Feral Benga, Odette Talazac, Enrique Rivero, Jean Desbordes
Release Year: 1930
Country: FR
Run Time: 55 minutes
Plot
In the first of this film's four episodes, a tall smokestack starts to collapse. Then the scene shifts to a young poet who is sketching faces. He sees that a sketch's mouth is moving and wipes it off with his hand; the mouth attaches itself to his palm. Eventually he transfers the mouth to a statue in his room. In the second episode, the statue tells the poet to enter a mirror. He falls into the darkness of the mirror's interior and finds himself at the Hotel de Folies-Dramatiques. The poet crawls along the hallway and peers into the keyholes, where he sees various bizarre situations. He reaches the end of the hallway, someone hands him a gun, and he shoots himself. The poet returns to his room and smashes the statue; then he becomes a statue himself in a courtyard. In the third episode, a group of boys engage in a snowfight in the courtyard. The statue is destroyed and one boy is left bloody and possibly dead after being hit with a snowball. In the final episode, the courtyard is revealed to be a stage on which a young woman and the poet play cards next to the boy's body, which is still lying on the ground. The woman tells the poet that he is lost without the Ace; he takes the card from the boy's jacket. The boy's guardian angel appears and covers him. He takes the Ace from the poet and leaves; the poet shoots himself in the head and the audience applauds. The woman walks away and it is revealed that she is the statue; then the film ends with the final collapse of the tall smokestack. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Review
Inspired by the myth of Orpheus and details from Jean Cocteau's own life, The Blood of a Poet is a fascinating, but somewhat confusing look at the struggle to create art. Its dreamlike imagery and unconventional narrative structure might not seem revolutionary to viewers who have absorbed Cocteau's influence through modern filmmakers such as David Lynch; also, the film might seem slow to some viewers despite its short running length (for example, the camera lingers too long on some of the reaction shots). But this is still an impressive and historically important film that retains much of its sense of mystery, although it's not as accessible as the remaining two films in Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, Orpheus (1950) and The Testament of Orpheus (1960). The Blood of a Poet isn't recommended to people who are hoping for a relatively straightforward story with just a few token weird scenes; the film doesn't have a conventional story line and is filled with disorienting imagery. However, the movie is too structured to be considered a full-fledged surrealist work. It contains comprehensible visual metaphors and symbols, draws on recognizable ideas and myths, and explores identifiable themes (such as death and resurrection). In other words, the movie is unusual because Cocteau wanted to express his ideas in a creative way and not simply because he wanted to confuse people. It's worth checking out if you're curious about the history of avant-garde cinema or want a glimpse into a unique, poetic mind. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Cast
Lee Miller - The Statue
Pauline Carton - Child's Tutor
Feral Benga - Black Angel
Odette Talazac
Enrique Rivero - The Poet
Jean Desbordes - Louis XV, masked
Fernand Dichamps; Lucien Jager; Barbette - Woman in Box/at Balcony; Jean Cocteau
The Blood of a Poet (French: Le Sang d'un Poete) (1930) is an avant-garde film directed by Jean Cocteau and financed by Charles, Vicomte de Noailles. Photographer Lee Miller made her only film appearance in this movie, and it also features an appearance by the famed aerialistBarbette.[1] It is the first part of the Orphic Trilogy, which is continued in Orphée (1950) and was concluded with Testament of Orpheus (1960).
The Blood of a Poet was funded by Charles, Vicomte de Noailles, who gave Cocteau 1,000,000 francs to make it. Cocteau invited the Vicomte and his wife Marie-Laure de Noailles, along with several of their friends, to appear in a scene as a theatre party; they talked amongst themselves and, on cue, began applauding. Upon seeing the completed film, they were horrified to learn that they were applauding a game of cards that ended with a suicide, which had been filmed separately. They refused to let Cocteau release the film with their scene included, so Cocteau re-shot it with the famed female impersonator Barbette and some extras.[2]
Plot
The Blood of a Poet is divided into four sections. In section one, an artist sketches a face and is startled when its mouth starts moving. He rubs out the mouth, only to discover that it has transferred to the palm of his hand. After experimenting with the hand for a while and falling asleep, the artist awakens and places the mouth over the mouth of a female statue.
In section two, the statue speaks to the artist, cajoling him into passing through a mirror. The mirror links to a hotel and the artist peers through several keyholes, witnessing such people as an opium smoker and a hermaphrodite. The artist is handed a gun and a disembodied voice instructs him how to shoot himself in the head. He shoots himself but does not die. The artist cries out that he has seen enough and returns through the mirror. He smashes the statue with a mallet.
In the third section, some students are having a snowball fight. An older boy throws a snowball at a younger boy, but the snowball turns out to be a chunk of marble. The young boy dies from the impact.
In the final section, a card shark plays a game with a woman on a table set up over the body of the dead boy. A theatre party looks on. The card sharp extracts an Ace of Hearts from the dead boy's breast pocket. The boy's guardian angel appears and absorbs the dead boy. He also removes the Ace of Hearts from the card sharp's hand and retreats up a flight of stairs and through a door. Realizing he has lost, the card sharp commits suicide as the theatre party applauds. The woman player transforms into the formerly smashed statue and walks off through the snow, leaving no footprints. In the film's final moments the statue is shown with a lyre.
Intercut through the film, surrealist images appear, including spinning wire models of a human head and rotating double-sided masks.
Delayed release
Shortly after its completion, rumors began to circulate that the film contained an anti-Christian message. This, combined with the riotous reception of another controversial Noailles-produced film, L'Âge d'or, led to Charles de Noailles' expulsion from the famous Jockey-Club de Paris, and he was even threatened with excommunication by the Catholic church.[2] The furor caused the release of The Blood of a Poet to be delayed for over a year.
