On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Jean Marais’ birth and the 50th anniversary of Jean Cocteau’s passing, the city of Biot is hosting an exhibition from July 4th to September 1st at the Tourist Office. This exhibition features 50 photographs, objects, and drawings that illuminate the unique universe of these two exceptional personalities.
Through around fifty large-captioned photos, a dozen objects created by Jean Marais, and a series of drawings, Frédéric Lecomte Dieu, the exhibition curator, has crafted a sensitive journey through Jean Marais’ career, leading to the discovery of their relationship woven with love, friendship, and mutual trust, “without claiming to present the entirety of Cocteau and Marais’ works but with the hope of opening one of the doors to their universe for the new generation.”
The public can notably discover or rediscover images from the filming of Beauty and the Beast, The Eagle with Two Heads, or Testament of Orpheus…
Both creators and versatile artists, Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais met in 1937 during an audition for King Oedipus. From then on, for more than 25 years, they would be inseparable, initially connected by love until the early 1950s and then by friendship until the poet’s death in 1963. Cocteau was both a father figure, confidant, and critic to the one who had become one of France’s most popular actors of the time. Marais later said, “Before him I loved the original, he taught me the singular.”
46 other photos from this exhibition “Marais-Cocteau, luck was on our side” will be simultaneously presented in Menton on the forecourt of the Jean Cocteau Museum, Séverin Wunderman Collection.
Additionally, Frédéric Lecomte Dieu is publishing an ABC book in June 2013, “Cocteau-Marais, luck was on our side,” with Editions Jourdan, composed of a series of information and anecdotes about the life of Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau.
