Wherever there's outstanding literature and music, there's bound to be seedlings of outstanding theater. Paris was the bubbling pot from where opera, ballet, comedy, puppet theater, and many other forms of stage theater emerged. At the end of the last century, there were no outstanding stars in the French theater to rival Sarah Bernhardt. At the age of 36 she left Comédie-Française to form her own theater company, and reached tremendous success. Until she met a tragic death when her long scarf got caught in the spokes of her moving automobile, she ruled the theater scene like a goddess. The 20th century saw Paris becoming a world center of the arts, as it welcomed talented artists from around the globe and carried word of their brilliant work to the rest of the world. One of the successes of the times was Diaghilev's ballet company from Russia. Legendary dancer Nijinsky captured international fame with his spectacular movements. The Russian ballet left a strong impact on Jean Cocteau, Eric Satie and other artists in Paris. Cocteau, a poet, novelist, critic, also painter, and filmmaker in the new art of movie picture, was a unique multi-talented genius. He was an artist who brushed away the walls between genres, and pursued a world of "dream" and "beauty" using all art forms. News of successful Les Enfants terribles (Children of the Game) and La Belle et la bΩte (Beauty and the Beast), later made into motion films, the ballet Parade and Le Boeuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof) traveled swiftly to Japan and the works were translated into Japanese by writers like Daigaku Horiguchi and Tatsuo Hori. Some say they influenced Japanese writers like Ango Sakaguchi and Yukio Mishima as well. By the 1920s jazz captured the popular taste, Afro-American dancer Josephine Baker received acclaim, and artists led by Picasso hailed black African art. La Belle Époque--it was precisely the blossoming epoch of both the avant garde and the classics in the fascinating city of the arts, Paris. This indeed was the attraction of New Century Paris.