Emak-Bakia means "Leave me alone" in Basque. I think the idea that Ray's repetitive shot of women stepping out of a car is evidence of a "foot fetish" is ridiculous. As is the idea that this film is "deeply pretentious." He was basically fooling around with a film camera, exploring different techniques and illusions, and later wrote that the end of the film was meant to show his audiences that he wasn't being "too arty." I also don't think this is a failed Surrealist film; consider it an "automatic film," as he called it, not a moving Dali painting. Automatic processes are closer to Surrealism's roots than representative dream imagery, anyway. Watch his later film "Etoile de mer" if you want to see something resembling "La coquille et le clergyman" or "Un chien andalou." By the way, calling a Dadaist's work "meaningless" would have been the highest compliment. If you want to see the legacy of Ray's experiments in film, watch something by a guy named Stan Brakhage.
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