Jean Cocteau by James S. Williams

Abstract

MLR, I02.I, 2007 245 then considers the suggestive contrast between the heritage-piece marketing of the filmand itscollation of amultiplicity of styles, including the intertextual dimension of surrealism, while inChantal Akerman's 2000 filmLa Captive, a study of pathological jealousy, the freestand yet closest Proustian adaptation todate (p. 172), the intertext is the cinema of obsession, including the thriller and the filmnoir. This last film is convincingly characterized as an example of a cinema of 'differance' in itsquestioning of traditional sets of binary oppositions (p. 204). A furtherchapter looksmore briefly at two filmsby Italian director Fabio Carpi, Quartetto Basileus and Le intermittenze del cuore,which present a kind ofmise en abyme ofProustian themes andmotifs, while a finalchapter traces Proustian echoes in film-making on both sides of theAtlantic. Itwill be apparent that the central focus of the book is the legacy ofmodernism. This means that more could be said both about Proust's 'nineteenth-century' qualities and about more traditional cinema, including the 'cinema du patrimoine'. However, the authors make it clear from the beginning that theywill be concentrating their attention on modernism, so it isperhaps unfair to reproach themwith a somewhat one-sided approach. This privileging of the free, more experimental rendering does, however, give rise to another potential problem in that the authors define themost Proustian filmnot necessarily as an adaptation of hiswork, but as one thatadopts and develops upon his innovative aesthetic.While this definitionwidens the scope of the topic considerably and permits a number of illuminating insights, it also makes the dividing line between a 'Proustian' filmand various other types of art cinema very difficult to draw. These are onlyminor quibbles, however. In general thebook's breadth of allusion and depth of analysis make itboth rewarding and enjoyable to read. It should be of interestnot only to specialists inProust and Film Studies but also toundergraduates, especially if it is read selectively (as the authors explicitly encourage us to do). UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM JANE WALLING Jean Cocteau. By JAMESS. WILLIAMS. (French Film Directors) Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. 2oo6. xv+223 pp. ?4o. ISBN 978 0-7I90-5883-7. Cocteau's contribution to thecinema is thearea ofhis artistic activitywhere his genius has been most unambiguously recognized, and yet the available critical literature still remains relatively thin,which makes thisnew volume in the Manchester French Film Directors series all themore welcome. James S.Williams deals with Cocteau' scontri bution to the cinema as awhole, and so discusses films towhich Cocteau contributed without being director, particularly L'Eternel Retour, although, as is tobe expected, it is thosewhich he did direct thatprovide themain focus, and all of hismajor works in themedium, including his only colour film,the shortLa Villa Santo-Sospir, receive individual attention. Nevertheless, Williams has not written a simple film-by-film round-up ofCocteau's works in the genre; true, after a general introduction setting up both the backgound and Cocteau's ideas on and contribution to the cinema, both Le Sang d'un poete and Orphee have theirown individual chapters, but these are se parated by a chapter entitled 'The Tricks of theReel', inwhich theothermajor films are dealt with inpairs: L'Eternel Retour with La Belle et la bete,L'Aigle a deux tetes with Les Parents terribles,and La Villa Santo-Sospir with Le Testament d'Orphee. The importance of that last film is also fully recognized by the ample attention it receives in the second of the two essays that follow, the firstdevoted to Cocteau's collaboration with JeanMarais and the second to the importance of both depictions of themale body and theuse of reversemotion inhis cinema. A final shorter section 246 Reviews discussing the influence of Cocteau's cinema on subsequent directors, particularly Godard, brings thework to a close. This structuremeans that any students looking only for,say, a section devoted to La Belle et la betewill find it to be relatively short, but, if they take the trouble to read thewhole ofwhat is,after all, a relatively compact study, theywill be rewarded bymany more general insights and a sense of the range and diversity of Cocteau's cinematic achievement, including his theoretical approach and the practical means used to...