Return To Reason: Four Films By Man Ray (Criterion Collection)

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The swirling surrealist dreams of Man Ray are high-water marks of 1920s avant-garde cinema, a nexus of cryptic themes, dark eroticism, and playful abstraction. Seemingly plucked from an unconscious realm, these four shorts—Le retour à la raison, Emak bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé—find the visionary artist experimenting with the limitless possibilities of montage, superimposition, distortion, and even the application of objects directly onto celluloid. Set here to an ethereal score by the Jim Jarmusch–Carter Logan collaboration SQÜRL, these cine-poems are optical carnival rides that surprise, delight, and unsettle with each tantalizing frame.

Extras:
New 4K digital restorations of all four films, featuring a score by SQÜRL presented in 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio
Interview with Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan, who form the avant-rock band SQÜRL
Concert from 2023 featuring SQÜRL performing its semi-improvised score to Man Ray’s films
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by author Mark Polizzotti