Return to Reason (1923)
"Le retour à la raison" (original title)

Experimental film, white specks and shapes gyrating over a black background, a light-striped torso, a gyrating eggcrate. One of the first Dadaist films.

Director:

Man Ray

Stars:

Kiki of Montparnasse

Cast

Credited cast:
Kiki of Montparnasse	...	Nude torso

Storyline

Experimental film, white specks and shapes gyrating over a black background, a light-striped torso, a gyrating eggcrate. One of the first Dadaist films.

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Plot Keywords:

experimental film | avant garde | female nudity | surrealism | abstract film | 

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Genres:

Short

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Details

Country:

France

Release Date:

20 November 1999 (Greece)

Also Known As:

Return to Reason

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

3 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the movie - a very short, soundless abstract piece - was first exhibited, 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.

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Connections

Featured in Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: The Music of Light (1995)

User Reviews

Surreal, artistic, ...pretty short

This short montage by Man Ray is interesting for fans of avant-garde, its photographic, surreal, Dadaist structure is highly experimental, and it appears to be the forerunner to the more rounded, structured Emak-Bakia, finished three years later. Man Ray has a particular penchant for close-up out of focus shots of revolving objects, which gives a strange jamais-vu feeling about many of the average household objects he spins in front of his camera. The image of Kiki's nude torso revolving and reflecting strips of light is particularly beautiful. However, Man Ray's best work, in my opinion are his home movies (particularly the film of the matador and also the colour film featuring a very young-looking Pablo Picasso)