RADIO LUXEMBOURG - JEAN COCTEAU (1889/1963):... - Lot 372 - Coutau-Bégarie

RADIO LUXEMBOURG - JEAN COCTEAU (1889/1963): Writer, filmmaker, cartoonist and poet. 1 lithograph of a drawing by Jean Cocteau entitled "Hommage aux ondes de Radio Luxembourg", published in 1960, after an original drawing of October 1938 and signed in the plate. A work by Jean Cocteau, who once spoke on Radio Luxembourg: "I worked at the Radio-Luxembourg station. I did the kind of work that administrative staff hate: work that disturbs habits and forces us to grope, to search, to stay up late. Not only did I not catch the slightest ironic smile, the slightest gesture of bad humor, but on the contrary, from top to bottom of this astonishing factory of sound preserves, I encountered a spirit of enterprise, kindness and collaboration unique in the world. The Radio-Luxembourg station resembles the cabin of an American squadron ship, where the impeccable décor ceases, because it's the heart of the machine, with the disorder of a caravan and an artist's bedroom. Here, we invent. Here, we observe. Here, we find. And L'élégance de Radio-Luxembourg strikes me because this room is nowhere to be found, but everywhere, mingled with the soul of the station. Think of the work of these watchmakers of the invisible, these specialists in an unknown world where time and space not only don't exist, but are confused, overlapping and obeying new rules. Nothing is more confidential than radio. If I speak, I address every person, every family, every dining room, every bathroom. No one is shy about listening. This is what intimidates me and what makes the microphone a monster more terrible than a room, where the "public" element gives you stage fright like the sea gives you seasickness. The anguish of the microphone is of a different order. I know that my voice passes through walls, like Dr. Caligari's sleepwalker, and that it is blind. So, in the face of so many insidious enigmas, in the face of unhuman problems, the exquisite humanity of a station is comforting. It brings untold help. It is therefore my gratitude that I express to Radio-Luxembourg, to all those who haunt and operate it". Format 44x56. Framed lithograph. Presented to André Torrent, the famous host of Hit-Parade on RTL.