Jean Cocteau, born in Maisons-Laffitte in 1889, died in Milly-la-Foret in 1963. He was probably the best-known French poet, to the general public. Not that his work was, like that of PrÃ©vert, full of popular sensitivity; but he had the gift, through his constant innovations and his hatred of dogmatism, of incarnating the very essence of poetic exclusion among successive generations of young people. Playwright and novelist, poet and film director, he created many great works whose names are known outside of literary and cinematic circles: The Human Voice, The Infernal Machine, Les Parents Terribles, Thomas the Imposter, and naturally, The Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus.