Description
Poetry. Art. Film. Translated from the French by Mary-Sherman Willis, these sparkling prose poems originally published by Jean Cocteau in 1953 seem written yesterday. Lively, irreverent, and surreal, each page leaves the reader breathless and laughing. Bilingual: French / English.
"Jean Cocteau was a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker known for classic films such as Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus, but whatever the genre, all of his creations were essentially poetry. In this bilingual edition of GRACE NOTES, Cocteau's wit, surrealism, and radical vision of the world are as timeless and shocking as when the book was published. And Mary-Sherman Willis's fluid translation will let you enjoy every gloriously ornamental note." —Jesse Lee Kercheval
"GRACE NOTES was published in the early 1950s, yet how fresh, even stylish, these prose poems are today, sparkling like little jewels. They are as ephemeral as a fleeting glance, or a hint of flavor on the tongue. They move by the music of the language (French), and by Cocteau's flights of fancy as well as by his obsessions. Undoubtedly they are clever. But they are also funny and tragic. You are about to enter Cocteau's capricious world. Prepare to be dazzled." —Barbara Goldberg
Author Bio
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a French writer, artist and film director, was one of the most influential creative figures in the Parisian avant-garde. He wrote poetry, novels, memoirs, plays, and operas and was a prolific illustrator, designer, painter and sculptor. In the second half of his fifty-year career he produced and directed groundbreaking surrealist films, most notably Blood of a Poet (1930), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael called him "the progenitor of the new wave" of French filmmakers. By the end of his life he had published 23 books of poems, seven novels, seven screenplays, four memoirs, overseen 21 theater productions, including plays, operas and ballets, 26 works with musicians, and 18 films.
Author City: Paris FRA