The Blood of a Poet (1932)

 Jean Cocteau's "The Blood of a Poet"


When I started to watch Jean Cocteau's 1932 short film "The Blood of a Poet," the surrealist nature of the film drew in my wife's attention, as she is one of prefer surrealist cinema to more straightforward pieces of art or entertainment. As we watched, my wife and I began to interpret the images we were seeing. Our interpretations came down to: the life of an artist who feels he has the ability to speak through his work. However, as he travels through the mirror, he confronts his own demons and misunderstanding of things. We he gets back on the other side, he realizes that his duty is to speak the truth. This truth is that he is privileged and a member of the bourgeois class he's meant to be taking aim at through his art. His position in his class compromises him as an artist and as a human. 

Is this the correct interpretation of "The Blood of a Poet?" My guess is....probably not! Despite this, the beauty about this film, along with other surrealist works of cinema, is that my wife and I can CREATE the narrative for ourselves, based on what we're seeing. Sure, you could look up the 'correct' or 'close-enough' interpretation of the film. However, for me, it is the participatory nature of the film that provides meaning. The small moments of my wife and I connecting and building a narrative together that provided me the greatest sense of connection. 



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