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268
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COCTEAU (Jean) A lovely piece by Jean COCTEAU on the sources…
See original version (French)
268
-
COCTEAU (Jean) A lovely piece by Jean COCTEAU on the sources…
See original version (French)
Estimate €1,000 - €1,500
Voluntary lot
Description
COCTEAU (Jean)
A lovely piece by Jean COCTEAU on the sources of laughter in theatre and cinema: “For people, laughter is the counterbalance to tragedy. Irresistible, it opens even the most reserved of people right up to their very souls. - Yet the cinema, in all its novelty, offered laughter a greater opportunity than the theatre. We were familiar with tragic heroes, but we had not yet, since Harlequin, had a comic hero. – It was an age when even in appearance and costume, the comic had a firm foundation. Stiff collars, bow ties, boater hats, morning coats, striped trousers, gaiters, a flower in the buttonhole – whilst this attire became a charm flaunted by Arsène Lupin, it helped my ‘bloodhound’ wonderfully to become the clumsy lover who risks sitting on his beloved’s little dog. Limier was, in a way—without the added elements of poverty and Jewish melancholy—the forerunner of Charlie Chaplin, and whilst a deep sadness did not seem to form the backdrop to his antics, he was nonetheless a sort of victim of fate’s Machiavellian twists… - Let us pay tribute to Max Linder and … those who bring him out of that shadow which every star of the theatre or the cinema passes through after their death. - Max Linder’s case adds further evidence to our thesis. One cannot be funny without a touch of drama, and perhaps Linder’s burlesque genius stemmed from a defence against the profound loneliness of his soul.”
3 A4 pages written in ink (slightly faded by the sun), with a few cross-outings and additions in the margins, mounted on a passe-partout and set in a wooden-and-glass frame.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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