It’s at least autumn before we see Jim Jarmusch’s first film in five years, but his latest contribution is larger than most can manage: Sqürl, his musical outfit with Carter Logan, scored four newly restored shorts from the legendary Man Ray, which will debut on May 15. Janus Films are releasing it as a package entitled Man Ray: Return to Reason and encompassing Le retour à la raison, Emak-Bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les Mystères du Château du Dé; there is now a trailer showcasing films and music alike.
Here’s the synopsis: “The four films Man Ray directed between 1923 and 1929, LE RETOUR À LA RAISON, EMAK-BAKIA, L’ÉTOILE DE MER and LES MYSTÈRES DU CHÂTEAU DU DÉ represent a high watermark of early European avant-garde cinema, a seminal nexus of experimental technique, surrealist narrative, and playful abstraction as suffused with dark eroticism. In these films Ray began discovering the limitless possibilities of montage as well as the direct application onto celluloid of objects such as salt, pepper, pins, and thumbtacks. Juxtaposing undulating geometric patterns, a twirling fairground ride, and a female nude, among other striking images, Ray finds subconscious correspondences among seemingly incongruous materials and figures.”
Find preview and poster below:
