Michel Bulteau is a French poet, essayist, occasional musician and experimental filmmaker, born on 8 October 1949 in Arcueil.
Biography
When he was twenty-two, he contributed with seventeen other young poets, including Matthieu Messagier, Jean-Jacques Faussot, Jacques Ferry, Patrick Geoffrois and Thierry Lamarre to a poetry bundle entitled 'Manifeste Électrique aux paupières de jupes' (Electrical Manifesto with Eyelids of Skirts), which was published in 1971 by Le Soleil Noir. The poetry bundle entitled 'Manifeste Électrique aux paupières de jupes' was a literary manifest that caused a stir in the literary world. Encouraged by the Belgian-French poet and writer, Henri Michaux, he continued his quest as a rebellious poet.
In 1976, he moved to New York where he became friends with beat writers, painters and pop punk musicians. Bulteau is, in the words of William S. Burroughs, an "explorer of untouched psychic areas."
Work
Michel Bulteau was only twenty-one years when '7, Retomba des nuits' (1970), his first book of poetry, was published. The poems in this collection are dark, tragic and desperate and are a reflection of the violence and freedom of the Beat Generation as well as the generation of black surrealism. He would publish many more poetry collections which are all characterised by a hypersensibility. This places him firmly in the tradition of great French writers such as Baudelaire, Nerval and Rimbaud. Bulteau has written that "Being modern is the most dangerous artistic route. Being modern means refusing to be untrue, unreal."(Aérer le présent, 1999).
Michel Bulteau has written more than sixty books including poetry books, biographies of famous persons associated with the beat generation and avant-garde art scene (Allen Ginsberg, James Dean, Andy Warhol) as well as journals and essays. He has been an editor of the Nouvelle Revue de Paris in which he published Houellebecq's early poems.
Michel Bulteau is also active as a musician. He was the lead singer of Mahogany Brain, a band with which he aimed to realise his ideal of a marriage between poetry and rock'n roll. The band played pre-punk music that was influenced by drugs (the original cover of their debut showed an arm with a syringe). Their music was a crossing of Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. The band was quite short-lived: they played their only concert in the summer of 1970 at the Lucemarie during which Bulteau threw bricks at the few members of the audience. After that they became a studio band recording two records. In December 1970 Mahogany Brain recorded the album With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger) released by the Futura label early the next year and they also provided the soundtrack to a short film of Bulteau's, Main Line. Another record, Smooth Sick Lights, was recorded on a single day in June 1972, but only released several years in 1976 later by the Pole label. Mahogany Brain issued a new record under the title With/Without in 2004 on Mello Records. Michel Bulteau has recorded a maxi 45 with Elliott Murphy (1989) and a further three solo albums during the nineties and in 2004.
Michel Bulteau has directed and contributed to a number of avant-garde movies which place him in the tradition of experimental directors such as Kenneth Anger, Stan Brackage and Jean Cocteau.
In Fiction
Michel Bulteau appears as a character in the novel The Savage Detectives by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. In the novel Michel Bulteau meets Ulises Lima, one of the main characters of the novel, in Paris circa 1976. Later, a Peruvian poet, Roberto Rosas, becomes obsessed with his poem "Sang de Satin" as he is trying to translate it into Spanish.
Bibliography
7, Retomba des nuits (textes), Aglis Press, 1970
Manifeste Électrique Aux Paupières de Jupes, Le Soleil Noir, 1971
Poème A Effraction-Laque, J-J Pauvert, 1972
Parvis à l'écho des cils (collectif), J-J Pauvert, 1972
Sang de satin, illustrations de Jacques Hérold, Première personne, 1972
Les cristaux de foliesuivideWatcris88mots, Electric Press, 1973
Poudrier de dent (collectif), J-J Faussot éd, 1973
Ether-Mouth, Slit, Hypodermique, Seghers, 1974
Venins (collectif), J-J Faussot, 1974
On My Lap (collectif), Electric Press, 1975
Des siècles de folie dans les calèches étroites, Belfond, 1976
Le Maître des abysses, La Lampe Voilée, 1977
Euridyce d'Esprits, Bourgois, 1979
La Pyramide de la Vierge, Bourgois, 1979
Îles serrées, Belfond, 1980
Enfant Dandy Poème, Bordas et fils, 1980
L'Aiguille de diamant de l'anéantissement, Le Soleil Noir, 1980
Discours de la beauté et du cœur, Bordas et fils, 1981
Le Martyre de M de Palmyre, Éditions du Fourneau, 1982
Mythologie des filles des eaux, Ed du Rocher, 1982, 1997
Proses bien déprosées (avec Matthieu Messagier), Electric Press, 2001
Un héros de New York, La Différence, 2003
Allen Ginsberg, le chant de l'Amérique, La Différence, 2007
Hoola Hoops, poèmes 1996–2004, La Différence, 2007
Les Hypnotiseurs, La Différence, 2008
New York est une fête, La Différence, 2008
Andy Warhol, le désir d'être peintre, La Différence, 2009
Apollon jeté à terre, La Différence, 2010
Filmography
Le destin d'un tueur Two versions, black & white, silent, 8 mm, 3' /color, 9', 1963
Dernier Rôle 1967
Une voyelle B in collaboration with Matthieu Messagier, 1968
La Direction de l'odeur A film of Matthieu Messagier Camera : Michel Bulteau With Jean-Pierre Cretin, Michel Bulteau, Jean-Jacques Faussot and Matthieu Messagier, 1968
Main Line Camera : Michel Bulteau and Patrick Geoffrois Music : Mahogany Brain Actors: Adeline, Patrick Geoffrois,
Mine and Michel Bulteau, 1971
Asnaviràm Music: AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, 1974
Un naufrage s'offrait Music : Matt Lucas, Little Tony and his brothers, Chris Montez Actor : Adeline 1974–1975
Impératrice Music : Claudia Muzio Actor: Adeline 1974–1976
On the Radio, on the screen Actor : Michel Bulteau 1976
La Lisière de la miséricorde Actor : Adeline and Michel Bulteau 1976
Astérie Camera : Philippe Puicouyoul, 1979
Yémen, temps du sacré A film by Layth Abdulamir, script and text by Michel Bulteau 1994
