While Man Ray is mostly remembered for his significant contribution to Dada art (in several well-known Dada films), the majority of his work listed on IMDb in fact consists of a series of short home movies he made of various things, none seemingly made with the intent of ever being released. It seems that after the artist's years as a filmmaker, the home movies he made 1923-1938 somehow resurfaced and were compiled in a nearly feature-length collection aptly titled "Home Movies". While nothing in particular is unique about them, they do provide interest to fans of old film - especially those interested in the artist himself.
"Poison" is one of the strangest in the collection - it feels as though it could have been an actual film, because the atmosphere built using these few shots and characters is actually quite interesting. Featuring Man Ray and another one of his friends, Meret Oppenheim, the title is perhaps what makes it so bewildering, as without the title, there is little context to it: all the four-minute film seems to be otherwise is shots of a man and a woman smoking and drinking, when the man pretends to play dead. Yet with the label "Poison", a whole bunch of questions are raised, making it feel almost like a whodunit in some sense - even though all it was in reality was Man Ray and his friend messing around and filming each other. As with other scenes from different home movies, I feel it could have easily made its way into one of his Dada/Surrealist shorts, or maybe even been publicly released with additional scenes. An odd little film which remains an interesting if accidental demonstration of atmosphere in filmmaking - perhaps one of his most curious home movies.
"Poison" is one of the strangest in the collection - it feels as though it could have been an actual film, because the atmosphere built using these few shots and characters is actually quite interesting. Featuring Man Ray and another one of his friends, Meret Oppenheim, the title is perhaps what makes it so bewildering, as without the title, there is little context to it: all the four-minute film seems to be otherwise is shots of a man and a woman smoking and drinking, when the man pretends to play dead. Yet with the label "Poison", a whole bunch of questions are raised, making it feel almost like a whodunit in some sense - even though all it was in reality was Man Ray and his friend messing around and filming each other. As with other scenes from different home movies, I feel it could have easily made its way into one of his Dada/Surrealist shorts, or maybe even been publicly released with additional scenes. An odd little film which remains an interesting if accidental demonstration of atmosphere in filmmaking - perhaps one of his most curious home movies.
