THE HUMAN VOICE
A woman alone in a room on the telephone, distraught as she speaks to the lover who has left her for another woman.
Taking this sad, banal situation as his starting point, Jean Cocteau gives us a mini-tragedy in one act – a strange “monologue for two voices” made of words and silences – in which the telephone plays a crucial role.
“There was a time when people saw each other,” Cocteau wrote. “You could lose your head, forget your promises, risk the impossible, persuade the person you adored by kissing them, clinging to them. One look could change everything. But with this instrument, what’s over is over.”
First performed in 1930, this text was set to music by Francis Poulenc and adapted for the screen by Roberto Rossellini, with Anna Magnani in the lead role.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was a prolific and bafflingly versatile artist. As a graphic artist, designer, playwright, filmmaker and writer, and a close friend of many major European creators (from Picasso to Coco Chanel via Marcel Proust), he numbers among those who influenced an era. From amongst his tumultuous personal relationships and his critically acclaimed artistic collaborations, one particularly notable example was the work that brought him together with Raymond Radiguet to write Le Diable au corps.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death, éditions Stock will be republishing several of the artist’s books.
L'auteur
Recevez notre newsletter pour ne rien rater de notre actualité
