I have just seen this anthology of Man Ray as part of the 47th Mostra International Sao Paulo Film Festival. On a big screen with superb audio, at Cinemateca, and it was captivating on many levels.
The soundtrack is a modern techno interpretation, with Jim Jarmusch's participation, which integrates perfectly with the action. Not intrusive but occasionally the music draws your attention because you expect an orchestra with violins and a piano.
What is striking is how modern it feels but it's a century old. You must remember the difficulties of hand-held filming, and editing at that time but we have wild angles, spinning shots, and very short takes. One minute you are crawling along the floor and the next minute you are flying as if in a drone. It is very contemporary but then everything you see is on a visit to the 1920's.
You see the upper class 20's fashion of the flappers in longish skirts, with multiple layers of complex underwear, and all the men in suits and everyone in hats. Swimming costumes were bulky wooly affairs and caps obligatory for men and women, and we see the footwork of the charleston dance. The cars are memorable but there is apparently no traffic. We visit a super modern 1920's concrete country house with a wild indoor swimming pool integrated with a gymnasium complete with medicine balls and trapeses over the water.
This is all a sideshow for the lesson in surrealism. It's a bit like amateur dramatics but that's because we see it through our sophisticated eyes of today. They must have had so much fun dressing up, wearing masks and performing synchronised dances and exercises. The dream-like quality is created by filming through semi-opaque filters. We pass from reality to super-reality. Not the image but always the shadow of the image and the patterns produced in the water, the glare of the sun and the reflections of light on objects.
I'm not an artist but I love art, and I'm not a film buff but I love independent film. It is the very beginning of modernism and so it is art history. It's also a fine example of not only preserving history, but giving it a modern twist, which will be enjoyed not only today but by future generations.
