Search - Great Writers - Jean Cocteau on DVD

"Overdiversified"

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 06/24/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After seeing many dry lectures recorded onto DVDs, it was refreshing to see a documentary that tried to keep the viewer's attention. In this work, still photos of Cocteau would show him increasing in size or have his eyes moving. The pages of his texts were portrayed as if they were walls in a maze or waves on an ocean. This abstract dynamic is similar to the art house films on Najinsky, an associate of Cocteau, and "Frida" about the Mexican artist. Cocteau was a master of all trades, similar to Byron and Michelangelo. He knew it and contemporaries asked him about it. Many documentaries suppress the homosexual identity or activities of their subjects in order not to upset modern, homophobic audiences. This work may have done the opposite. They only mention Cocteau's loves with men, but Notable Names Database lists him as bisexual and two women with whom he was involved. Unlike documentaries for Anglophone American audiences, the narrator here always gave the French titles for Cocteau's works, not English translations. Further, pages of the recorded text were in French, again not English. I am most familiar with Cocteau's filmic work and I would say not much time is spent on them here. I think those who love Dali's work and enjoy documentaries about Dali, would also enjoy and benefit from learning about Cocteau."