1923-1928 Best of Man Ray
This is a compilation of footage from Man Ray's avant garde films "Le Retour à la Raison" (1923), "Emak-Bakia" (1926) and "L'Étoile de Mer" (1928).
Man Ray started making films only after he found his name on a flyer of a festival Dada founder Tristan Tzara was planning. He decided to do something about it; actually deliver the programmed dadaist movie.
"Emak-Bakia" means "leave me alone" or "the female [gives] the peace" in Basque. The film was originally part of "À quoi rêvent les jeunes films" as commissioned by count Etienne de Beaumont for his "Soirees de Paris" ballet productions.
During an early exhibition of the movie a man in the audience stood up and complained it was giving him a headache. Another man told him to shut up, and they both started to fight. They left the theater fighting and the police were called in to stop the fight.
Man Ray also worked on other relevant avant garde movies by fellow artists: "Ballet Mécanique" (1924) by Fernand Léger, "anémic-cinéma" (1926) by Marcel Duchamp and "Dreams That Money Can Buy" by Hans Richter (1947).
American artist Man Ray was born as Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890. He later refused to acknowledge that he ever had a name other than Man Ray, with Man being short for Emmanuel and Ray being the new surname chosen by his brother for the family in 1912.