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Jean Cocteau
Despite Jean Cocteau’s renown as a leading figure in European cinema, his work and life have rarely been examined together. Evaluating Cocteau’s career and his fascinating personal life on equal terms, James Williams offers here a groundbreaking analysis that sets them both within highly revealing historical and artistic contexts.
Williams’s biographical investigation of this poet, dramatist, novelist, designer, and filmmaker centers around Cocteau’s constant self-questioning and how it permeated his work. From Cocteau’s work in fashion and photography to his formal experimentation to his extensive collaborations with male friends and lovers, the book charts the complex and unpredictable evolution of his work and aesthetic. Williams argues that Cocteau’s body of work is best viewed as an ethical, erotic project of aesthetics that carries important ramifications for our contemporary understanding of being and subjectivity.
An engaging and wholly accessible account, Jean Cocteau is essential reading for all those fascinated by the man and his unforgettable films.
Williams’s biographical investigation of this poet, dramatist, novelist, designer, and filmmaker centers around Cocteau’s constant self-questioning and how it permeated his work. From Cocteau’s work in fashion and photography to his formal experimentation to his extensive collaborations with male friends and lovers, the book charts the complex and unpredictable evolution of his work and aesthetic. Williams argues that Cocteau’s body of work is best viewed as an ethical, erotic project of aesthetics that carries important ramifications for our contemporary understanding of being and subjectivity.
An engaging and wholly accessible account, Jean Cocteau is essential reading for all those fascinated by the man and his unforgettable films.
- GenresBiography
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 19, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 21, 2008
First of all, I haven't read one bad Reaktion Press - Critical Lives book. And this little biography on Jean Cocteau is superb like the others in the series.
What makes this book so special is that it comments on Cocteau's work in literature and film (which I feel he's a master of that medium) with insightful commentary - but also doesn't ignore the personal life of Cocteau as well. Basically a Gay man who lived his life out front during the early 20th Century and had to deal with the sometimes harsh world of the Avant-Garde (The Surrealists) of the time. Although a wonderful 'Jack-of-all-Trades' artist, he was also a publicity addict. Well-connected and wanted to stay well-connected no matter what - even with relationships with certain individuals in the Nazi Party, Cocteau would have been very comfortable in today's world of media overload. in many ways he was sort of the first Andy Warhol of his culture and time period.
Anyone who has even the slightest interest in early 20th Century arts should go out and by this book. As well as the Erik Satie, Georges Bataille, Charles Bauldelaire, Picasso, and Duchamp in this really great series of books.
What makes this book so special is that it comments on Cocteau's work in literature and film (which I feel he's a master of that medium) with insightful commentary - but also doesn't ignore the personal life of Cocteau as well. Basically a Gay man who lived his life out front during the early 20th Century and had to deal with the sometimes harsh world of the Avant-Garde (The Surrealists) of the time. Although a wonderful 'Jack-of-all-Trades' artist, he was also a publicity addict. Well-connected and wanted to stay well-connected no matter what - even with relationships with certain individuals in the Nazi Party, Cocteau would have been very comfortable in today's world of media overload. in many ways he was sort of the first Andy Warhol of his culture and time period.
Anyone who has even the slightest interest in early 20th Century arts should go out and by this book. As well as the Erik Satie, Georges Bataille, Charles Bauldelaire, Picasso, and Duchamp in this really great series of books.
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May 9, 2024---Notes---
p101: "The narrator is lucid and eternally vigilant, yet along with the slightly paranoid fears about the beloved escaping from him via sleep into another world (‘I could kill you when I see you smiling in your sleep!’, ‘I will die, you will live, and that’s what awakens me!’, etc.), there is a strong yearning here for fusion: ‘You hold my body tight with your little strength./ Why are we not a plant with the same bark,/ The same heat, the same colour,/ And whose single flower would be our kiss.' p112-3: Plunged into complete emotional turmoil, Cocteau withdrew entirely from circulation, leaving Chanel to pay for the funeral and all remaining medical expenses. He would neither visit Radiguet’s dead body nor, on the day of the funeral, join the long procession in pouring rain to Père-Lachaise. Nor did he attend the service at the church of Saint-Honoré D’Eylau. In fact, while le Tout Paris gathered to pay their last respects to Radiguet in the white catafalque adorned with a single bouquet of red flowers (he had not yet reached the age of 21 and was still considered a minor), Cocteau remained alone in his bedroom consumed by thoughts of suicide. As he had freely admitted during a talk given earlier in May at the Collège de France in which he laid the basis for the Radiguet legend (the object of his devotion was present in the audience), he had staked his entire fortune on ‘the Radiguet number’. Radiguet had now returned to the heavens as unpredictably as he had arrived, and Cocteau sensed that he himself might now become a thing of the past. In fact, the early deaths of Cocteau’s lovers and protégés were already embalming his twenties and early thirties. From now on he would always be focused on the past, left to mourn, regret and somehow preserve a Golden Age he had served to create. Indeed, he would spend the rest of his life celebrating the legacy of Radiguet as the embodiment of artistic freedom. Yet the hardest thing of all remained to do: to live without him. It would constitute Cocteau’s daily trauma for many long y ears to come."
I’m crazily jealous of Radiguet like never have been. Lunae has loved few people and Cocteau is one. He has never so much hated his female body which concealed his virility in its totality. Why Cocteau could not have chosen him instead? He could have outperformed this damn Radiguet in every, every, every single aspect and been much more worthy of the senior's love. This anachronistic jealousy burns.
Et mon amour dort dans la Chapelle Saint Blaise des Simples.
p101: "The narrator is lucid and eternally vigilant, yet along with the slightly paranoid fears about the beloved escaping from him via sleep into another world (‘I could kill you when I see you smiling in your sleep!’, ‘I will die, you will live, and that’s what awakens me!’, etc.), there is a strong yearning here for fusion: ‘You hold my body tight with your little strength./ Why are we not a plant with the same bark,/ The same heat, the same colour,/ And whose single flower would be our kiss.' p112-3: Plunged into complete emotional turmoil, Cocteau withdrew entirely from circulation, leaving Chanel to pay for the funeral and all remaining medical expenses. He would neither visit Radiguet’s dead body nor, on the day of the funeral, join the long procession in pouring rain to Père-Lachaise. Nor did he attend the service at the church of Saint-Honoré D’Eylau. In fact, while le Tout Paris gathered to pay their last respects to Radiguet in the white catafalque adorned with a single bouquet of red flowers (he had not yet reached the age of 21 and was still considered a minor), Cocteau remained alone in his bedroom consumed by thoughts of suicide. As he had freely admitted during a talk given earlier in May at the Collège de France in which he laid the basis for the Radiguet legend (the object of his devotion was present in the audience), he had staked his entire fortune on ‘the Radiguet number’. Radiguet had now returned to the heavens as unpredictably as he had arrived, and Cocteau sensed that he himself might now become a thing of the past. In fact, the early deaths of Cocteau’s lovers and protégés were already embalming his twenties and early thirties. From now on he would always be focused on the past, left to mourn, regret and somehow preserve a Golden Age he had served to create. Indeed, he would spend the rest of his life celebrating the legacy of Radiguet as the embodiment of artistic freedom. Yet the hardest thing of all remained to do: to live without him. It would constitute Cocteau’s daily trauma for many long y ears to come."
I’m crazily jealous of Radiguet like never have been. Lunae has loved few people and Cocteau is one. He has never so much hated his female body which concealed his virility in its totality. Why Cocteau could not have chosen him instead? He could have outperformed this damn Radiguet in every, every, every single aspect and been much more worthy of the senior's love. This anachronistic jealousy burns.
Et mon amour dort dans la Chapelle Saint Blaise des Simples.
November 20, 2025
For my first university essay, our professor gave us a list of directors and we had to choose one of them and write about their life, artistic style, and films. I chose Jean Cocteau. I didn’t know much about him at first, but something spoke to me, and I decided to purchase this book. I read it in two days (because the deadline is soon), and I just finished it.
I didn’t expect to relate so much to a gay director from the 1940s. It’s too late now and I have to go to sleep, so all I can say is that everyone should know more about him — not only for being such an avant-garde and visionary artist, but also for being a queer icon of his time.
If anyone is considering reading this book, please do. I also really enjoyed James Williams’s writing style. Now I have to write about him')
I didn’t expect to relate so much to a gay director from the 1940s. It’s too late now and I have to go to sleep, so all I can say is that everyone should know more about him — not only for being such an avant-garde and visionary artist, but also for being a queer icon of his time.
If anyone is considering reading this book, please do. I also really enjoyed James Williams’s writing style. Now I have to write about him')
December 4, 2017
If you're looking for a comprehensive book on Cocteau, from his early life and early works to his later life and works, this book is nearly perfect. Two complaints: the book slips into scornfulness at times, and, secondly, doesn't quite understand how and why addiction to opium happens. However, other than that, this is a must-have book for anyone interested in Cocteau or looking for a resource book on the author for a school project.
October 10, 2018
if you're already into cocteau then you'll most probably enjoy this but if you're like me and just reading this after watching one of his movies then you'll probably find this biography interesting but nothing exceptional
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews