Monday 7 December 2009

Retour à la raison (1923)


Retour à la raison (1923) is a short avant-garde film made by Man Ray, American Dadaist –later Surrealist - photographer and painter. This 2-minute piece is the spirit of spontaneity and chance in cinema. A manifestation of the importance of “texture” in conveying the total feelings of a motion picture. Attacking the logic and rational order by using dissimilarity between the images. One of the first films that really evokes this notion that film could be poetry in motion, poetry in light.


In the early twenties, Man Ray bought a small film camera that could hold a few feet of standard film and Tristan Tzara, the key figure in Dada movement, encouraged him to create a Dada film. Man Ray set up this camera and filmed some of his art work in movement, as well as other shots: a turning paper spiral, his airbrush painting Dancer/Danger, to which he gave a sense of movement by blowing smoke at it, an egg divider which he hung up and turned in front of the camera, his ‘visual’ poem consisting of only horizontal lines, which he moved back and forth, the lights of a merry-go-round at night, and of course the most beautiful object for Man Ray, the naked female torso turning in front of striped curtains. The female body thus becomes a canvas for the lines of light.


"Acquiring a roll of a hundred feet of film, I went into my darkroom and cut up the material into short lengths, pinning them down on the worktable. On some strips I sprinkled salt and pepper, like a cook preparing a roast, on other strips I threw pins and thumbtacks at random; then I turned on the white light for a second or two, as I had done for my still Rayographs. Then I carefully lifted the film off the table, shaking off the debris, and developed it in my tanks. The next morning, when dry, I examined the work; the salt, pins and tacks were perfectly reproduced." Man Ray described the process of creating Retour in his Self-Portrait.

5 comments:

  1. فیلم های من ری تو همین نت دیدم....زنش هم مثل اینکه چند تا فیلم ساخته..این فیلم تو ubu هست فکر کنم....آقای خوشبت درباره فیلم هم می نویسد..که فیلمنامش ماله ساموئل بکت..

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  2. کلا هیچی معلمون نمی شود که ما چی نوشتیم..

    درباره فیلم نظرتون چیه؟!
    همون که فیلمنامش ماله بکت....
    kave breton

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  3. آخ جون نمردم و يه دادائيست فيلمساز هم ديدم.البته شرمنده ام از اينکه اطلاعات سينماييم پايينه اما سعيمو مي کنم به هرحال.البته در کل دادا خوبه وقتي که به سوررئاليسم مي رسه قبلش فقط يه پيام صرف محسوب مي شه که مي خواد نابودي هنر رو رو در برابر خشونت موجود داد بزنه.

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  4. برتون؛ تو دو كلمه مي نويسي مثل رسم الخط چيني از كار در مياد و به شطحيات حلاج نزديك مي شه، بعد ايراد مي گيري فلسفه نوشتن "باس" به صورت "باس" چيه؟ من "فيلم" بكت/كيتون رو ديدم. يك فيلم تجربي خيلي ساده اس كه اگه بكت نساخته بود بين اين همه آوانگارديست اعلاي نيويوركي هيچ وقت اسمي ازش نمي موند. اما نكته اينه كه درباره آدم هايي مثل بكت يا مارسل دوشان اين "اثر" نيست كه اهميت داره، اين "آثار" ه كه حساب مي شه و باباي زمانشو در مياره، و بلاخره اين هم يكي از "آثار" بكته. من عاشق كيتونم. بكت واقعي من كيتونه

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  5. رسم الخط چینی مثل حرف زدن من می مونه که چینیه..:دی..
    از کیتون همه فیلم هاش رو گرفتم ولی تنها ژنرال و دیدم.. باس پس همه کاراش و بینم..
    مرسی..
    kave breton

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