Jean MARAIS (1913-1998). Autograph manuscript,... - Lot 256 - Rossini

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  3. Jean MARAIS (1913-1998). Autograph manuscript,... - Lot 256 - Rossini
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Jean MARAIS (1913-1998). Autograph manuscript,... - Lot 256 - Rossini
Jean MARAIS (1913-1998). Autograph manuscript, [Histoires de ma vie]; ca. 825 pages in-4 or in-fol. (6 notebooks and ca. 200 ff.). Working manuscripts of his autobiography, published in 1975 by Albin Michel. The various versions of the manuscript are much more extensive than the printed version, Marais having removed many anecdotes from the final version. I. The first 160 pages (free pages in a pocket, numbered 1-45 then 17-107 and 107-131), with the mention "1er Travail" (1st work), retrace the years of Jean Marais's childhood: his family (the separation of his parents, the arrival in the Paris region, his relationship with his mother), school and his years as a dunce "I was a monster" (the Condorcet high school, then the various boarding schools, etc.), with many anecdotes that do not appear in the final version. He already speaks about his passion for the cinema and the theater... II. Red spiral notebook (pages 140-266) He enters the training of the photographer Manuel, from which he quickly resigns to join the theater class of Charles DULLIN, after having failed at the Conservatory, his "chance", he says... Beautiful pages on Charles Dullin, who "was a great actor and a great director, but the Dullin of the classes was even greater, more human, more real"... Then quickly, it is his lightning encounter with COCTEAU, for Œdipe Roi. A beautiful passage on the first impressions that Cocteau made on him, then a description of the poet's room at the Castille Hotel, where the poet, in the smell of opium and "this smell that Picasso says is the most intelligent", read to the young man, in the presence of Marcel Kill and Al Brown, the play The Knights of the Round Table... Then comes the success of Oedipus Rex and the beginning of their love... Marais often talks about the poet's addiction to opium, an addiction against which he fights... Beautiful pages on Cocteau's friends who frequent their circle, in particular Christian BÉRARD, Max JACOB, CHANEL, etc. Then comes the writing of Les Parents terribles (1938), the important meeting with Yvonne de BRAY who will play the role of Jean Marais' mother on stage and screen, as well as in life, the help of Coco Chanel to send Cocteau to rehab, the arrival of the War... Great success and scandal of the play... Marais, exhausted, falls very ill... Again, many passages have been reworked, moved or deleted, even if the most important ones are kept in the final version. Likewise in the following quires...III. Large pink-covered folio, "SIC" (pages 267-327). This notebook, in addition to the continuation of the story, contains more than 50 poems by COCTEAU transcribed by Marais, which the poet offered daily to his young lover, most of which were integrated into the final work only as a final addendum under the heading "Suite poétique"... Marais in convalescence asks Cocteau to pose for him, and he paints his portrait, which inspires the poet in love, who slips poems under his door every day, such as "The Portrait"... [1939]. Jean Marais' concern and questioning about Cocteau's cocaine consumption, who is working on the publication of La Fin du Potomak... Numerous poems... Following a ball with Count Étienne de Beaumont, Cocteau's attitude, busy with a thousand jobs, changes and becomes "fatherly tenderness for me": He then writes him a letter (which will be followed by 4 others, all transcribed in the final version): "My beloved Jeannot, I have come to love you so much (more than anything else in the world) that I have given myself the order to love you only as a father and I would like you to know that it is not because I love you less but more"... Fearing to deprive the young actor of his freedom, but also to suffer too much, Cocteau gives him back his freedom, in a way, by ceasing their carnal relations: this decision was "hard to take because my adoration is mixed with respect. And Marais comments: "Nobleness, kindness, frankness: so I have always known him. And if I transcribe his letters at my expense, it is because I hope to show that there was never any injury in his conduct, that his feelings were as noble as they were rare. But I accepted this paternal attitude"... After several transcriptions of poems, Marais dwells on the friendship that bound Cocteau and Al Brown, and all the help he gave him, as well as to Marcel Kill, etc. IV. Red Notebook Les Lauriers "SIC" (pages 328-503): Al Brown, Mr. Kill, etc. Filming of Les Parents Terribles, departure for Saint-Tropez, then the War and demobilization... Britannicus... Filming of L'Eternel Retour, a triumph... Meeting with Jean GENET, whom Cocteau helps... Arrest of Max JACOB: "Max Jacob's friends obtain his liberation... The day of his death"... Paris and the theater during the war, Marais invaded by numerous young female admirers...
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