FR EN
an old handwritten letter from a man who is writing a poem
Ader

333 - Jean COCTEAU (1889–1963). Signed autograph manuscript, Lette…
See original version (French)

Estimate €800 - €1,000
Sale commission
Description
Jean COCTEAU (1889–1963). Signed autograph manuscript, Letter to Sergei Yutkevich following his film *Othello*, [Cannes, late April 1956]; 3 pages, in-4. A public letter addressed by the poet to the Russian film director Sergei Yutkevich (1904–1985) concerning his film *Othello*, screened at the 9th Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Best Director Award; this open letter was published in *Les Lettres Françaises* on 3 May 1956. Having just left the film’s premiere screening, Cocteau expresses his praise and admiration for the power of this work: ‘My dear Serge, I had, alas, not seen Orson Welles’s *Othello*, and I thank you for inviting me to your dressing room yesterday and for so kindly showing me yours. […] From the very first minutes of this film, where hands invade the screen like vines, you bring the Moor’s great purple hand before our eyes; you command us to forget Shakespeare’s play and compel us to see it as though we had never seen it before.” Cocteau acknowledges Eisenstein’s legacy, who ‘bequeathed to you the secret of a somewhat childlike yet orderly savagery, of a classical romanticism in the style of Pushkin, of a fable that realist power equates with History’… Cocteau celebrates the power of the sets: Byzantium, Cyprus, the Greek temples, and ‘those waves that play their part in the drama, enveloping Iago and his victim in their froth’. This film unfolds ‘A dream that has escaped from sleep, a monster emerged from a dimension inaccessible to ours, a cyclone whose calm epicentre is the gaze of this young wife, resigned to her fate. […] Tonight, I return to Cape Town, escorted by illustrious ghosts to whom you have breathed new life through the courageous transfusion of the blood of your heart’.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like