Orpheus Jean Cocteau
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Orpheus Jean Cocteau (Excerpted from The Art of Cinema © 1992. Reprinted by permission of Marion Boyars Publishers, New York, London.) he visionary author, film maker, and Why does she travel in a Rolls, and why does poet Jean Cocteau, a mentor and Heurtebise appear and disappear at will in Tfriend of Rosicrucian singer Edith Piaf, some circumstances, but submit to human drew a great deal of inspiration for his art from laws in others? This is the eternal why that the classical myths, including those of Cupid obsesses thinkers, from Pascal to the least and Psyche (Beauty and the Beast), Sisyphus of poets. (The Infernal Machine), and Orpheus (The Any unexpected phenomenon in nature Orphic Trilogy). In this essay, he discusses disturbs us and confronts us with puzzles aspects of the middle film of his Orphic Trilogy, that we are sometimes unable to solve. No Orfée (1950). one has yet fathomed the true secret of an I wanted to deal with the problem of ants’ nest or a beehive. The mimicry and what is decreed in advance and what is not spots of animals surely prove that some decreed in advance—in short, with free will. species have thought for a long time about When I make a film, it is a sleep in becoming invisible; but we know nothing which I am dreaming. Only the people and more than that. places of the dream matter. I have difficulty making contact with others, as one does Myth, Mysteries, and the Supernatural when half-asleep. If a person is asleep and I wanted to touch lightly on the most someone else comes into the sleeper’s room, serious problems, without idle theorizing. So this other person does not exist. He or she the film is a thriller which draws on myth exists only if introduced into the events of from one side and the supernatural from the dream. Sunday is not a real day of rest the other. for me, I try to go back to sleep as quickly I have always liked the no man’s land as possible. of twilight where mysteries thrive. I have Death in my film is not Death repre- thought, too, that cinematography is sented symbolically by an elegant young superbly adapted to it, provided it takes woman, but the Death of Orphée. Each of us has our own which takes charge of us from the moment of birth. So Orphée’s Death, exceeding her authority, becomes Cégeste’s, and Cégeste says to her—when she asks: “Do you know who I am?”—“You are my Death,” and not: “You are Death.” Realism in unreality is a constant pit- fall. People can always tell me that this is possible, or that is impossible; but do we understand anything about the workings Rosicrucian of fate? This is the mysterious mechanism Digest that I have tried to make tangible. Why is No. 1 Filming Orphée, with Jean Cocteau (center) and Marie Déa 2008 Orphée’s Death dressed in this way, or that? (standing, right). Photo © Marion Boyars Publishers. Page 38 the least possible advantage of what Le Sang d’un Poète was based on the people call the supernatural. The closer you poet’s need to go through a series of deaths get to a mystery, the more important it is and to be reborn in a shape closer to his to be realistic. Radios in cars, coded messag- real being. There, the theme was played es, shortwave signals and power cuts are all with one finger, and inevitably so, because familiar to everybody and allow me to keep I had to invent a craft that I did not know. my feet on the ground. In Orphée, I have orchestrated the theme, Nobody can believe in a famous poet and this is why the two films are related, whose name has been invented by a writer. twenty years apart. I had to find a mythical bard, the bard of My film could not stand the slightest bards, the Bard of Thrace. And his story is degree of fantasy, which would have seemed so enchanting that it would be crazy to look to me like breaking my own rules, so, as I for another. It provides the background was inventing the rules, I had to make them on which I embroider. I do nothing more comply with numbers that were governed than to follow the cadence of all fables by nothing outside their relationships to one which are modified in the long run accord- another. If I made Heurtebise disappear, ing to who tells the story. Racine and once by using the mirror and once on the Molière did better. They copied antiquity. spot, this was because I thought it impor- I always advise people to copy a model. It is tant to preserve the degree of latitude that by the impossibility of doing the same thing intrigues entomolo gists, although its laws twice and by the new blood that is infused escape them. into the old frame that the poet is judged. I have often been asked about the Orphée’s Death and Heurtebise figure of the glass vendor: he was the only reproach Orphée for asking questions. one able to illustrate the saying that there Wanting to understand is a peculiar obses- is nothing so hard to break as the habit sion of mankind. of one’s job; since, although he died very There is nothing more vulgar than works young, he still persists in crying his wares in that set out to prove something. Orphée, a region where windowpanes are meaning- naturally, avoids even the appearance of less. Once the machinery had been set in trying to prove anything. “What were you motion, everyone had to go with it, so that trying to say?” This is a fashionable question. in the scene when he returns to the house, I was trying to say what I said. Marais succeeded in being comical without All arts can and must wait. They may going beyond the limits of taste and with even wait to live until after the artist is dead. no break between lyricism and operetta. Only the ridiculous costs of cinematography The same is true of François Périer, force it to instant success, so it is satis- whose mockery never becomes unkind or fied with being mere entertainment. With makes him seem to be taking advantage of Orphée, I decided to take the risk of mak- his supernatural powers. Nothing was more ing a film as if cinematography could permit demanding than the role of Orphée, grap- itself the luxury of waiting—as if it was the pling with the injustices of the youth of art which it ought to be. literature. He does not seem to me to have Beauty hates ideas. It is sufficient to secrets which he divines and which deceive itself . Our age is becoming dried out him. He proves his greatness only through with ideas. It is the child of the Encyclo- that of the actor. Here again, Marais illumi- paedists. But having an idea is not enough: nates the film for me with his soul. the idea must have us, haunt us, obsess us, Among the misconceptions which become unbearable to us. have been written about Orphée, I still see Page 39 Heurtebise described as an angel and the Princess as Death. In the film, there is no Death and no angel. There can be none. Heurtebise is a young Death serving in one of the numerous sub-orders of Death, and the Princess is no more Death than an air hostess is an angel. I never touch on dogmas. The region that I depict is a border on life, a no man’s land where one hovers between life and Scene from Cocteau’s Orphée—(from left to right) Jean Marais, death. The tribunal bears the same rela- Marie Déa, and François Périer. Photo© Marion Boyars Publishers. tionship to the supreme tribunal as the investigating magistrate to the trial. The “I can’t see her any more.” (Cinémonde, Princess says: “Here, you go from one tribu- No. 842, September 25, 1950). nal to the next.” A poet’s film is like a huge print run Critics describe as longueurs, the waves of one of his books. It is quite natural for between the knots, the passages of relax- many people not to accept this book, but ation between moments of intense activity. its huge circulation multiplies our chances Shakespeare is all longs and shorts: this is of touching some minds, the few people what makes him worthy of attention. The that, at one time, a poet would only reach in English do not notice the longueurs in Shake- the long term, or after his death. Moreover, speare because they know they are coming the experience of Orphée shows that these and respect them. few people are countless. Just as ten francs When Marais is praised for his acting in become a thousand, it seems that some rate Orphée, he replies: “The film plays my parts of exchange is operating with the audience. for me.” People who like the film and write to me (I count them among the countless few) all Themes in Orphée complain about the rest of the audience in The three basic themes of Orphée are: the Parisian cinema, which they consider a 1. The successive deaths through which lifeless mass. They forget that without the a poet must pass before he becomes, in that cinema they could not have seen the film. admirable line from Mallarmé, tel qu’en Orphée is a realistic film; or, to be more lui-même enfin l’éternité le change—changed precise, observing Goethe’s distinction into himself at last by eternity.