Antonin Artaud "La Nouvelle Revue Française"; they were rejected, but the editor, Jacques Rivière, wrote back seeking to understand him, and a relationship via letters developed. Their compilation into an epistolary work, "Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière", was Artaud's first major publication. Artaud cultivated a great interest in cinema as well, writing the scenario for the first surrealist film, "The Seashell and the Clergyman" (1928), directed by Germaine Dulac. This film influenced Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, two key Spanish surrealists, when they made "Un Chien Andalou" (1929). Artaud's performance as Jean-Paul Marat in Abel Gance's "Napoleon" (1927) used exaggerated movements to convey
The Seashell and the Clergyman The Seashell and the Clergyman The Seashell and the Clergyman () is an experimental French film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. It premiered in Paris on 9 February 1928. The film follows the erotic hallucinations of a priest lusting after the wife of a general. Although accounts differ, it seems that Artaud disapproved of Dulac's treatment of his scenario. The film was overshadowed by "Un chien andalou" ("An Andalusian Dog", 1929), written and directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. "Un chien andalou" is considered the first surrealist film, but its foundations in "The