"Blood of a Poet" January 14, 2010

"It is often said that Blood Of A Poet is a surrealist film. However, surrealism did not exist when I first thought of it." -- Jean Cocteau

For the first time ever, Severin will perform live his brand-new score for French master Jean Cocteau's debut 1930 film. As scandalous as Bunuel's L'Age D'Or upon its original release in the same year, Cocteau's heady mix of startling-for-its-time camera technique, voyeuristic lust and mindbending imagery straight from the subconsciousness serves as a kind of Rosetta stone both for the European avant garde and for the controlling images of Cocteau's cinema in general. The film's tableaux revolve around a young poet whose drawings instigate bizarre incidents: a statue comes to life, a mirror leads through to a corridor (later explored in Cocteau's Orpheus), a ritualistic suicide results in reincarnation. Cocteau provides no clear answers, and the film's pure enjoyment derives from trying to sort through the maze of fragmented pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktaDmv_MkjI&feature=player_embedded