An interesting note: Man Ray was pushed into filmmaking by dadist Tristan Tzara, who published a programme for an event listing a film, which would be shown at the event, by Man Ray. There was no film and Man Ray didn’t even know of the schedule until the day before the event. Tzara had even given the film a title already. Adapting one of his photographic printmaking techniques, Man Ray made the film which was shown at the event the following evening. The film was Le retour à la raison (1923). — Carl Bennett

Prerelease information on this title stated that the documentary is 60 minutes long, produced by the PBS television American Masters series, and that there would be “extra Man Ray short films.” We couldn’t find any. There are brief clips from Le retour à la raison (1923), Emak-Bakia (1926) and Les mystères du Château du Dé (1929). The majority of the documentary is more balanced across all of Man Ray’s excursions into various media. More prominent are Man Ray’s paintings and photography. After all, the Brooklyn-born artist was and remains known for his wonderful photographic portraits of Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Igor Stavinsky, Sinclair Lewis, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and more. The disc includes an essay by Neil Baldwin.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.