Jean Cocteau
French polymath—poet, novelist, filmmaker, and playwright—whose work in every medium was marked by mythological reinvention and surrealist imagery. La Machine infernale is his greatest play. His film version of Beauty and the Beast and his theatrical designs remain touchstones of 20th-century art.
Works
- La Machine InfernaleModernist interpretation of the Oedipus myth with symbolic machinery
- OrphéeAvant-garde play reimagining Orpheus myth in contemporary setting
- The Human VoiceMonologue of a desperate woman speaking to her absent lover
- Les Parents terriblesPlay examining family secrets and adolescent awakening
- BacchusDrama featuring Dionysus and Christian themes in ancient Athens
- OrpheusAvant-garde play reimagining Orpheus myth in contemporary setting
- The Infernal MachineModernist interpretation of the Oedipus myth with symbolic machinery
- The Eagles Has Two HeadsRomantic drama of a queen and eagle-like lover's doomed passion