Paris at the time. Cocteau’s ironic look at these popular entertainment genres celebrated their
commonplace poetry while exposing their tackiness and commercialism. The emphasis was on
the mundane occurrences, apathetic encounters, and vacuous publicity that defined the city’s
street life. Salient among the ballet’s most spectacular elements were the managers’ costumes,
which Picasso designed in the shape of enormous contraptions akin to three-dimensional Cubis
collages (Fig. 1). Satie’s score, of Surrealist and Futurist orientation, was equally memorable fc
blending such disparate ingredients as classical music, a jazz number, and the everyday noises
modern machinery (typewriters, telegraphs, sirens, engines, klaxons). Meanwhile, the
choreography borrowed heavily from popular entertainment, as it was most evident in the danc
of the Little American Girl. Her pantomime reproduced actions and gestures from silent films—
movements that, in the context of a ballet, exhibited the Surrealist quality of a familiar object
placed in an unfamiliar environment.*7
The Business Man, who has been observing the ritual with growing interest, jumps at th
portunity to incorporate it into his film. He chooses new costumes for the two actors. The
ilor puts on a tiger skin and necklaces. The Flapper wears a Hawaiian grass skirt and decorat
r hair with flowers. The Business Man directs the actors to join the ritual. However, the
rticipants block them angrily. Determined to carry out his plan, the filmmaker brandishes the
mera tripod like a spear and tries to physically impose authority on the black men. The Iyamt
d the Diablito confront him. Using magical powers, they conjure up fire under the intruder’s
se. Blind with rage, the Business Man wields his tripod and smashes the altar. The worshiper
e about to jump at him when a mysterious force paralyzes them. The Twins, Afro-Cuban
ities, materialize as gigantic black puppets with bulging eyes and cylindrical bodies.
forming an ominous dance of heavy steps, they inch their way toward the terrified Business
an. They magically wrap a cord around his neck and strangle him with abrupt gesture. The
yscraper deflates. The sugar mill’s siren wails somberly. The peasants, the Sailor, and the
apper freeze, as the black worshipers raise their arms to the sky and the curtain descends
