Man Ray: Return to Reason

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Isthmus Pick

Veer off the straight and narrow with this screening of four newly restored short films from the 1920s by the great American surrealist Man Ray. If this is not the birth of avant-garde cinema, it’s close. Le Retour à la raison, Emak-Bakia, L’Étoile de mer and Les Mystères du Château du Dé experiment with the then-new medium of film via surrealism and abstraction. And no jangly piano accompaniment here — a new drone rock soundtrack by Sqürl befits the films' bold, moody, modern vibe.

media release: Man Ray: Return to Reason celebrates the 100-year anniversary of the seminal work of early avant-garde cinema with a 4k restoration of four films by Man Ray set to a newly-recorded drone rock soundtrack by Sqürl, the Jim Jarmusch-Carter Logan combo.

The evening features Le Retour à la raison, Emak-Bakia, L’Étoile de mer, and Les Mystères du Château du Dé, directed by surrealist artist Man Ray between 1923 and 1929. These works show an artist pushing the boundaries of the nascent medium of film through experimental technique, surrealist narrative, and playful abstraction. The cosmic soundtrack by Sqürl compliments Ray’s work by conjuring the beautiful, ineffable, haunting, and sublime.