Sale 2461 - Autographs, November 7, 2017

“I THINK OF YOU SITTING NEAR ME FOR BEAUTY ANDTHE BEAST” 232 c   COCTEAU, JEAN.Autograph Letter Signed,“Jean / [asterisk],” to Marlene Dietrich (“Marlene dear”), in French, grumbling about the exhausting work his film demands [ Testa- ment of Orpheus , 1960], giving travel plans, and recalling the time he and Dietrich viewed his Beauty and the Beast together. 2 pages, 8vo, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; horizontal folds. [Paris], 9 December 1959 [700/1,000] “Sad being far from you, locked up in this exhausting work on the film for which I perform, edit, and mix. I’m back from the coast where I had to do a retake . . . (the dock at Villefranche disappeared like a domino falling from the table).Tomorrow I return . . . to Saint Maurice and every time I enter the projection room I think of you, sitting near me for Beauty and the Beast. . . .” On May 31, 1946, Cocteau arranged a private showing of Beauty and the Beast for himself, friends, and studio technicians.Writing in his diary the following day, Cocteau recalled that screening:“Marlene Dietrich was seated beside me . . . . I sat watching the film, holding Marlene’s hand, crushing it without noticing what I was doing. . . .” Property of the family of Marlene Dietrich.