Cocteau, Jean (1889–1963)

French poet, dramatist, and film director. A leading figure in European modernism, he worked with the artist Picasso, the choreographer Diaghilev, and the composer Stravinsky. He produced many volumes of poetry, ballets such as Le Boeuf sur le toit/The Ox on the Roof (1920), plays like Orphée/Orpheus (1926), and a mature novel of bourgeois French life, Les Enfants Terribles (1929), which he filmed in 1948.

He also produced the ballet Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel/The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party (1921) and the plays Antigone, La Machine infernale/The Infernal Machine, Les Parents terribles/Intimate Relations, and L'Aigle à deux têtes/The Two-headed Eagle. His novels include Le Grand Ecart/The Grand Ecart, Thomas l'imposteur/Thomas the Impostor, and Le Journal d'un inconnu/The Diary of an Unknown Man. He wrote and directed several films, including Le Sang d'un poète/The Blood of a Poet (1930), L'Eternel Retour/Eternal Return (1943), La Belle et la bête/Beauty and the Beast (1946), Orphée/Orpheus (1949), and Le Testament d'Orphée/Orpheus' Will (1959).

Cocteau published 20 volumes of poetry, and volumes of essays, including Le Coq et l'arlequin/The Cockerel and the Harlequin and Le Secret professionel/The Professional Secret. He also painted the interior of the St Pierre Chapel in Villefranche, near Nice on the Riviera, (1957).