#1291: MAN RAY: Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray (1923-1929)

MAN RAY (France)
Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray [1923-1929]
Spine #1291
Blu-ray


The swirling surrealist dreams of Man Ray are high-water marks of 1920s avant-garde cinema, a nexus of cryptic themes, dark eroticism, and playful abstraction. Seemingly plucked from an unconscious realm, these four shorts—Le retour à la raison, Emak bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé—find the visionary artist experimenting with the limitless possibilities of montage, superimposition, distortion, and even the application of objects directly onto celluloid. Set here to an ethereal score by the Jim Jarmusch–Carter Logan collaboration SQÜRL, these cine-poems are optical carnival rides that surprise, delight, and unsettle with each tantalizing frame.

70 minutes
5.1 Surround
Black and White/Color
in French
1:33:1
Criterion Release 2025

Director/Writer

Man Ray was 33-39 when he directed Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray.

The Films

Le retour à la raison (1923)
Emak-Bakia (1926)
L'étoile de mer (1928)
Les mystère du Château du Dé (1929)

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Commentary

Video tribute

Documentary 1

Documentary 2

Documentary 3

Controversial altered ending

Theatrical trailer


Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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