The Blood of a Poet

The Blood of a Poet (Le Sang d'un poète, 1932) is Jean Cocteau's debut film you can watch online on iFILM. An unnamed painter discovers that a statue he has been working on has come to life and is urging him to step through a mirror. On the other side: a hotel corridor, locked doors, and scenes that operate by their own logic with no interest in narrative.

This is the first film in Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, followed by Orpheus (1950) and Testament of Orpheus (1960). Funded by arts patron Vicomte de Noailles, it was shot on a tight budget and landed as a landmark of avant-garde cinema — each image composed as verse rather than story. Enrique Rivero plays the poet; Lee Miller, then a central figure in Parisian surrealism, takes a supporting role. Watch The Blood of a Poet (1932) online on iFILM.