Man Ray as Film Maker

IF MAN RAY WAS PROMPTED by one of his clients to produce Emak Bakia in 1926, it was his own idea to make a film two years later. The idea was born at a farewell dinner for his friend, Robert Desnos, as he was about to be sent to the West Indies for a reporting assignment. As usual Desnos recited a number of poems at the end of the meal, including one he had written that day entitled L’Etoile de Mer, which had a great impact on Man Ray:

My imagination may have been stimulated by the wine during our dinner, but the poem moved me very much, I saw it clearly as a film—a Surrealist film, and told

print November 1972

Man Ray as Film Maker

OF THE GROUP OF PAINTERS and poets who were members of the Dada and later Surrealist circles the one who contributed the most to the development of the cinema as a Surrealist medium was Man Ray.¹ Arriving in Paris on Bastille Day of 1921 he sought to continue his activities as a painter. His paintings received relatively little attention despite the fact that he had been part of the milieu of New York Dada and despite recognition of his works by the Paris Dada circle. His initial one-man shows were commercial failures, with no sales, and he turned to photography as a temporary solution to his