Mirrors should think longer before they reflect. Since forever, I have always been interested in what I see in the mirror, which of course, is a version of me. When I compare a photograph of myself and then the image of yours truly reflected in a bedroom mirror, it is like two different people. A photograph always makes me look fat, even ugly, but the longer I study myself through a mirror, I see beauty and even, at times, handsomeness. Watch yourself all your life in a mirror, and you'll see Death at work like bees in a glass hive.
When I walk in a city, the highlight is always when I see a reflection of myself either through a window, a reflection off a car window, or a shiny object. It’s a distortion, but rarely does it look bad. I know people look at me as if I’m in a photograph. Still, almost anyone can look disagreeable unless you have studio lighting, a make-up artist, and a camera positioned in the right place; rarely, how one thinks one looks is the same as someone else’s perspective of your appearance. My wife finds unattractive aspects of my hair and clothing to be a bit off the mark. This causes great anxiety and throws off my ability to know right from wrong, even if there is a wall between those two positions.
What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you. I never underestimate my friends and foes, who seem to notice my weak moments, which I try to hide at times, but then I realize that these are traits of strength no matter how annoying it is to me or my associates. What makes me stand out against the crowd is pretty much all the negative aspects of my personality and stance in life. It is what makes me unique, and one can dislike my practices, but even that can be a cheap sort of entertainment for some. Moments, when I feel embarrassment are signs of quality coming into one’s life. Displeasure by some is fuel for my ego, and like life, one has to roll with its punches to the body and (hopefully not) the face. Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
Excerpt of Jean Cocteau’s film, Blood of a Poet (Le sang d'un poète) 1930.
Starring:
Enrique Riveros (1906 - 1954)
Lee Miller (1907-1977)
Quotations by Jean Cocteau in Italic font.
I haven’t seen this film in ages but it’s clear from this excerpt that it’s still fresh and innovative. George Auric composed the music.