In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

286 CODES
has been mentioned. Jean Cocteau uses this mechanism-and falls prey
to it-in his rewriting of the Orpheus myth. Although there is scarcely
any other myth whose archaic versions are more centered on the threshold
between Immanence and Transcendence, Cocteau multiplies the occasions
for his protagonists to cross this boundary. In addition to Eurydice's
death and Orpheus' descent into the underworld, Cocteau stages
two complex appearances of Madame Death on earth [see Timepieces],
has Orpheus join Eurydice in the underworld after her second death, and
even lets the couple return to their home at the end of the play. This
happy ending coincides with the general tendency toward the absorption
of Transcendence into Immanence-for Orpheus and Eurydice realize
that their earthly home is their true paradise, and that the glazier who
used to fix the windows which they broke during their matrimonial fights
has been acting as their guardian angel: "Orpheus: ... Lord, we thank
you for having assigned us our dwelling place and our household as our
only paradise and for having opened to us your paradise. We thank you
for having sent the glazier to us, and we blame ourselves for not having
recognized your guardian angel" (118-119).
On Tuesday, June 15, the German millionaire and arts patron Harry
Graf Kessler attends the premiere of Orphee in Paris-and leaves the
theater deeply disappointed by the intricate scenic display with which
Cocteau makes his simple philosophical point:
The tickets cost a hundred francs (as much as those for the Ballet
Russe). The usual elegant, international audience. Many Americans,
English, even Japanese. The piece, which many have praised as extraordinary,
disappointed me. It doesn't come to terms with the topic-no
real tragedy, no real comedy. And then there's that impossible, embarrassingly
funny angel in the middle (flattering the trendy taste for
Catholicism), embodied by a repulsively sweet, eccentric young man
who seemed to come from a low-life hairdresser's. This sweet young
man ended up ruining the evening for me. But I also found it difficult
to bear Madame Pitoeff, who was once again appearing onstage eight
months pregnant-which is especially grotesque for a Eurydice. I was
so mad at Cocteau . . . that I left hurriedly after the performance,
without greeting him." (Kessler, 486-487)
Angels are much in demand these days, since they both deny and accentuate
the threshold between Immanence and Transcendence [see Imma-