Cocteau, Jean << kok TOH or kawk TOH, zhahn >> (1889-1963), a French writer, often used his many talents to shock the public. He had a great range of creativity and won fame as a poet, playwright, author of ballet plots, screenwriter, novelist, and artist. Cocteau defied the conventions of his time with an unorthodox private life, which included homosexuality and the use of opium. He also insisted that the artist occupies a central role in culture.
Cocteau frequently used the myths and dramatic plots of ancient Greece in his plays. Orpheus (1926) is a study of a poet’s agonizing search for inspiration and his struggle to gain acceptance for his work. The Infernal Machine (1934) is an adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Its theme is that humanity’s fate is controlled by dangerous powers that govern the universe. In Cocteau’s fantastic style, these plays use unexpected colloquial phrases, events out of time sequence, and symbols explainable in terms of modern psychology.
Cocteau’s best-known novel, Les Enfants terribles (1929), tells of four young people who create a sinister, unreal world of their own. He also created ballets, notably Parade (1917). He wrote and directed several films, including The Blood of a Poet (1932), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and Orpheus (1950). In his later years, he devoted his time to painting and to decorating chapels. Cocteau was born on July 5, 1889, in Maisons-Laffitte. He was elected to the French Academy in 1955. He died on Oct. 11, 1963.
