Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray
2024·Drama·1h 10m
7.1
★
An immersion into the surreal and dreamlike world of painter, photographer and filmmaker Man Ray (1890-1976), one of the most prolific American visual artists, through four of his short films, brought to life by the atmospheric music of SQÜRL.
Directed by Man Ray
surrealism
avant-garde
silent film
short compilation
dadaism
experimental cinema
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Kiki of Montparnasse
The Woman / The Girl With The Painted Eyes / Nude Torso
Robert Desnos
The Other Man
Man Ray
Self
Georges Auric
Self (uncredited)
Crew
Man Ray
Director
Man Ray
Screenplay
Jim Jarmusch
Original Music Composer
Carter Logan
Original Music Composer
Popular Reviews
8 reviews
Tony Hightower
8.0★ · 12/30/25
I watched all four of the shorts collected here separately this week, so it feels weird to review them fully again here, but the restorations look great, even if Jim Jarmusch's music is rather hit & miss. If you're not digging the soundtrack, you can mute it, and it doesn't affect the visual feast of it at all. (These links are to slightly more detailed reviews.)
1. The Starfish (17 min) - A love triangle, shot through distorted lenses.
2. Emak-Bakia (18 min) - Here's where Man Ray starts to do "the Man Ray thing."
3. Return To Reason (3 min) - This short has Man Ray getting even more arty and conceptual, and yes, if you're just here to see Kiki, this is the one.
4. Mysteries Of The Chateau Of Dice (27 min) - Man Ray & his friends take over a mansion for a weekend, in a fable about staying in the world and playing the game as long as you can.
1. The Starfish (17 min) - A love triangle, shot through distorted lenses.
2. Emak-Bakia (18 min) - Here's where Man Ray starts to do "the Man Ray thing."
3. Return To Reason (3 min) - This short has Man Ray getting even more arty and conceptual, and yes, if you're just here to see Kiki, this is the one.
4. Mysteries Of The Chateau Of Dice (27 min) - Man Ray & his friends take over a mansion for a weekend, in a fable about staying in the world and playing the game as long as you can.
I watched all four of the shorts collected here separately this week, so it feels weird to review them fully again here, but the restorations look great, even if Jim Jarmusch's music is rather hit & miss. If you're not digging the soundtrack, you can mute it, and it doesn't affect the visual feast of it at all. (These links are to slightly more detailed reviews.)
1. The Starfish (17 min) - A love triangle, shot through distorted lenses.
2. Emak-Bakia (18 min) - Here's where Man Ray starts to do "the Man Ray thing."
3. Return To Reason (3 min) - This short has Man Ray getting even more arty and conceptual, and yes, if you're just here to see Kiki, this is the one.
4. Mysteries Of The Chateau Of Dice (27 min) - Man Ray & his friends take over a mansion for a weekend, in a fable about staying in the world and playing the game as long as you can.
1. The Starfish (17 min) - A love triangle, shot through distorted lenses.
2. Emak-Bakia (18 min) - Here's where Man Ray starts to do "the Man Ray thing."
3. Return To Reason (3 min) - This short has Man Ray getting even more arty and conceptual, and yes, if you're just here to see Kiki, this is the one.
4. Mysteries Of The Chateau Of Dice (27 min) - Man Ray & his friends take over a mansion for a weekend, in a fable about staying in the world and playing the game as long as you can.
Emma
The music kinda forced something onto these idk
The music kinda forced something onto these idk
e.
j’ai fait une trop bonne sieste dsl les cinéphiles
j’ai fait une trop bonne sieste dsl les cinéphiles
martin
9.4★ · 07/09/24
el primo de jean vigo, el papá de maya deren y el abuelo de stan brakhage.
el primo de jean vigo, el papá de maya deren y el abuelo de stan brakhage.
Ari
10.0★ · 06/05/24
An examination of order, spontaneity, subjectivity, and cycles through the farcical, yet tangible, lens of the camera and further tied into a framework of how all these things are agents of desire.
Surrealism can be a mixed, overly satirical bag sometimes when it isn’t a principled work. Even dada has principle unlike what most reactionaries may say. In fact, there are thousands of pages worth of manifestos out there. These guys didn’t just sign urinals they were prolific writers. I know that’s assumed if ur watching the damn thing but still it’s worth noting how little we as a whole presently care (‘surrealism’ is rly only being used as a signifier for the uncanny and not recognized historically) about such a monumental scene…because, as per usual with the great forgotten works in history, they were mostly commies. The four Man Ray works examined here, while a bit egoist in their thematic sensibilities, maintain a consistent view and mode of expression that is as engaging as it is a deep, thorough exploration of the subjective psyche. I suggest the manifestos of Andre Breton if you want some supplemental readings for this, if ur just itching for more of the 1920s avant-garde lmao.
The main thing I gleaned from this collection was how much more consideration people need to give to the both the filter they individually put atop the world and the ‘assumed’ filters that overlay conventions. Ray’s mechanism of history—really his conception of desire too—is one where cycles and an over-abundance of time isolate and spontaneous chance liberates, but both remain wholly necessary and inextricable from experience.
Jarmusch and co. do a good job soundtracking this stuff, definitely nothing as radical as what is depicted on screen, but their work is still a formidable pairing alongside these four works albeit a little grating by the conclusion. It didn’t help nor hurt the viewing experience and that’s honestly ok when the source material is just so GORGEOUS. I obv have no basis as this is my first experience with Ray, but the restoration and remaster was entrancing as well, eyes totally fixed to silver screen. Great work done there by that side of the production.
Favorite prob… Emak-Bakia if I had to pick
Surrealism can be a mixed, overly satirical bag sometimes when it isn’t a principled work. Even dada has principle unlike what most reactionaries may say. In fact, there are thousands of pages worth of manifestos out there. These guys didn’t just sign urinals they were prolific writers. I know that’s assumed if ur watching the damn thing but still it’s worth noting how little we as a whole presently care (‘surrealism’ is rly only being used as a signifier for the uncanny and not recognized historically) about such a monumental scene…because, as per usual with the great forgotten works in history, they were mostly commies. The four Man Ray works examined here, while a bit egoist in their thematic sensibilities, maintain a consistent view and mode of expression that is as engaging as it is a deep, thorough exploration of the subjective psyche. I suggest the manifestos of Andre Breton if you want some supplemental readings for this, if ur just itching for more of the 1920s avant-garde lmao.
The main thing I gleaned from this collection was how much more consideration people need to give to the both the filter they individually put atop the world and the ‘assumed’ filters that overlay conventions. Ray’s mechanism of history—really his conception of desire too—is one where cycles and an over-abundance of time isolate and spontaneous chance liberates, but both remain wholly necessary and inextricable from experience.
Jarmusch and co. do a good job soundtracking this stuff, definitely nothing as radical as what is depicted on screen, but their work is still a formidable pairing alongside these four works albeit a little grating by the conclusion. It didn’t help nor hurt the viewing experience and that’s honestly ok when the source material is just so GORGEOUS. I obv have no basis as this is my first experience with Ray, but the restoration and remaster was entrancing as well, eyes totally fixed to silver screen. Great work done there by that side of the production.
Favorite prob… Emak-Bakia if I had to pick
An examination of order, spontaneity, subjectivity, and cycles through the farcical, yet tangible, lens of the camera and further tied into a framework of how all these things are agents of desire.
Surrealism can be a mixed, overly satirical bag sometimes when it isn’t a principled work. Even dada has principle unlike what most reactionaries may say. In fact, there are thousands of pages worth of manifestos out there. These guys didn’t just sign urinals they were prolific writers. I know that’s assumed if ur watching the damn thing but still it’s worth noting how little we as a whole presently care (‘surrealism’ is rly only being used as a signifier for the uncanny and not recognized historically) about such a monumental scene…because, as per usual with the great forgotten works in history, they were mostly commies. The four Man Ray works examined here, while a bit egoist in their thematic sensibilities, maintain a consistent view and mode of expression that is as engaging as it is a deep, thorough exploration of the subjective psyche. I suggest the manifestos of Andre Breton if you want some supplemental readings for this, if ur just itching for more of the 1920s avant-garde lmao.
The main thing I gleaned from this collection was how much more consideration people need to give to the both the filter they individually put atop the world and the ‘assumed’ filters that overlay conventions. Ray’s mechanism of history—really his conception of desire too—is one where cycles and an over-abundance of time isolate and spontaneous chance liberates, but both remain wholly necessary and inextricable from experience.
Jarmusch and co. do a good job soundtracking this stuff, definitely nothing as radical as what is depicted on screen, but their work is still a formidable pairing alongside these four works albeit a little grating by the conclusion. It didn’t help nor hurt the viewing experience and that’s honestly ok when the source material is just so GORGEOUS. I obv have no basis as this is my first experience with Ray, but the restoration and remaster was entrancing as well, eyes totally fixed to silver screen. Great work done there by that side of the production.
Favorite prob… Emak-Bakia if I had to pick
Surrealism can be a mixed, overly satirical bag sometimes when it isn’t a principled work. Even dada has principle unlike what most reactionaries may say. In fact, there are thousands of pages worth of manifestos out there. These guys didn’t just sign urinals they were prolific writers. I know that’s assumed if ur watching the damn thing but still it’s worth noting how little we as a whole presently care (‘surrealism’ is rly only being used as a signifier for the uncanny and not recognized historically) about such a monumental scene…because, as per usual with the great forgotten works in history, they were mostly commies. The four Man Ray works examined here, while a bit egoist in their thematic sensibilities, maintain a consistent view and mode of expression that is as engaging as it is a deep, thorough exploration of the subjective psyche. I suggest the manifestos of Andre Breton if you want some supplemental readings for this, if ur just itching for more of the 1920s avant-garde lmao.
The main thing I gleaned from this collection was how much more consideration people need to give to the both the filter they individually put atop the world and the ‘assumed’ filters that overlay conventions. Ray’s mechanism of history—really his conception of desire too—is one where cycles and an over-abundance of time isolate and spontaneous chance liberates, but both remain wholly necessary and inextricable from experience.
Jarmusch and co. do a good job soundtracking this stuff, definitely nothing as radical as what is depicted on screen, but their work is still a formidable pairing alongside these four works albeit a little grating by the conclusion. It didn’t help nor hurt the viewing experience and that’s honestly ok when the source material is just so GORGEOUS. I obv have no basis as this is my first experience with Ray, but the restoration and remaster was entrancing as well, eyes totally fixed to silver screen. Great work done there by that side of the production.
Favorite prob… Emak-Bakia if I had to pick