Le retour à la raison

I'm not an artist nor am I someone who can be considered to be artistically inclined. I am not going to sit here and pretend to understand what it is that I have just watched. However I will state that in my opinion it was a pleasant viewing experience. It really is the director danglingn a bunch of shapes in front of a camera for 2 and a half minutes before being shown a human figure. Soemhow I did not mind watching this. If anything I had a good time. Would I watch this again? No, probably not however, if it was showns to me again I would not protest. It is only 3 muinutes long. It does invoke a strange sensaiotn of nostalgia but I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I had by the end experienced glee like a child being shown a sparkly toy, dread and discomfort, and confusion all at diferent intervals. Impressive.

Quick and to the point (not that there is much of a (clear) point), Man Ray's works are some of the most unique in artistic history, and his film, in particular, are quite fascinating. While Ray is better known for still photography, he takes full advantage of the grand invention of cinema by infiltrating his films with constant movement. Shapes are deformed and inanimate objects become animate...it's all very avant garde and will probably please those who enjoy the experimental, surreal, and unique.

This is NOT something you might see on the Disney Channel or ABC! It's a bizarre Dadaist art film from Man Ray that was made by overlaying various objects on the filmstrip. And, occasionally, there are brief glimpses of images. If none of this makes any sense (including the nude torso and amusement park) then you are not alone--this IS the purpose of the film--to confuse and provoke, as anarchism was a major aspect of the Dadaist work. I actually found that with the accompanying music (that was added much later), it was actually rather hypnotic. Weird but actually kind of interesting in an artsy-fartsy way. And, it's impossible to give a numerical score to this film.

It starts in chaos. It's the chaos of the mind. The gargantuan amount of facts threaten to bring all thoughts out of order. So many trees, we can't see the forest. That kind of thing. So we just see static, gibberish dots and lights.

Then we have a date with a woman and go to the carnival with her. Our head is too full to see what really matters. We spin around, with the woman in our arms, and hundreds of light dots spin around us. We manage to sort our thoughts again and to return to reason. It's quite the opposite of going insane. We realize what really matters in life. Tits without a face. We are cured.

A good experimental short film. Good photography and attention to the lights and shadows. You can see the attention and photographic skill. The shadows on the woman's body are visionary!