'Orpheus'

I never realized the breadth of Jean Cocteau's artistic output.

I knew he was a writer. His literary output was well known to me in addition to his criticism, poetry, screenwriting and plays.

He directed 11 films, including Orpheus in 1949. He even wrote ballets. He is listed as a designer and a boxing promoter on his Wikipedia page.

Cocteau was simply born at the right time in the right country. If nothing else, he was lucky and, yet, incredibly talented to put all of this together.

He was born in 1889 near Paris. By the time he was 20, he was living in the cultural epicenter of the world where art, literature, thought, creativity and everything in between was absolutely bursting at the seams. He collaborated with or simply hung out with Andre Gide, Pablo Picasso, Edith Piaf, Erik Satie, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Marcel Proust and dozens of other artists.

It's one thing to be talented. It's a completely different thing to be hobnobbing with some of the greatest artists that ever lived when boundaries were being demolished. What a time to live and work.