COCTEAU, JEAN

born , July 5, 1889, Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris, Fr. died Oct. 11, 1963, Milly-la-Fort, near Paris French poet, librettist, novelist, actor, film director, and painter. Some of his most important works include the poem L'Ange Heurtebise (1925; The Angel Heurtebise); the play Orphe (1926; Orpheus); the novels Les Enfants terribles (1929; The Incorrigible Children; Eng. trans. Children of the Game) and La Machine infernale (1934; The Infernal Machine); and his surrealistic motion pictures Le Sang d'un pote (1930; The Blood of a Poet) and La Belle et la bte (1946; Beauty and the Beast). Additional reading Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography (1970, reissued 1986), is the most fully documented study of Cocteau's life that has yet appeared. Biographical information also appears in Bettina L. Knapp, Jean Cocteau, updated ed. (1989), and Jean Cocteau and the French Scene (1984), a collection of illustrated essays. Critical studies of Cocteau's works include Wallace Fowlie, Jean Cocteau: The History of a Poet's Age (1966), a discussion of the various genres used by Cocteau in his writings, attempting to analyze the success or lack of success of the various works in terms of the historical moment at which they appeared; Neal Oxenhandler, Scandal & Parade: The Theater of Jean Cocteau (1957), an analysis of his plays based largely on the myths behind the plays and the personal myths or legends of Cocteau himself; Frank W.D. Ries, The Dance Theatre of Jean Cocteau (1986); and William Emboden, The Visual Art of Jean Cocteau (1989), illustrations of his drawings, paintings, designs, and sculpture.