L'Étoile de mer

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Movie
Original title L'Étoile de mer
L etoile de mer titel.jpg
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1928
length 18 minutes
Rod
Director Man Ray
script Man Ray
production Man Ray
camera Man Ray , JA Boiffard
cut Man Ray
occupation

L'Étoile de mer (German: "The starfish") is a black and white surrealistic avant-garde film by the American artist Man Ray from 1928 . The film is based on a script by the French writer Robert Desnos . Actors are Alice (Kiki) Prin , André de la Rivière and Robert Desnos.

Most of the scenes are blurry filmed through a gelatinous pane of glass and seem like in a dream. In the original the film is silent. Man Ray added music to later copies. The film was shot in Paris .

action

The film begins with a starfish rotating against the light . A handwritten subheading explains that the film is based on a poem by Robert Desnos, "Seen by Man Ray". A scene follows in which a couple in a park, filmed blurred through a filter, is moving towards the camera. The camera tracks the couple's feet. Subtitles appear on it in French and English: “Les dents des femmes sont des objets si charming” or “Women's teeth are objects so charming…” (German: “The teeth of women are charming objects.”).

This is followed by a look at a blurred woman's leg and again a subheading: "... qu'on ne devrait les voir qu'en rêve ou à l'instant de l'amour" (German: "... which you can only dream or at the moment of Love sees. "). The next scene takes place in a house, again filmed out of focus: the couple go up a flight of stairs, get on a bed, the woman undresses and then lolls on the bed. This is followed by an intertitle "Adieu", and the man leaves the room. This is followed by a (French) play on words as a subheading: “Si belle! Cybèle? ”(“ So beautiful! Cybèle ? ”). The camera then follows the man as he descends a staircase. Another subheading: "Nous sommes à jamais perdus dans le désert de l'éternèbre." - "We are forever lost in the desert of eternal darkness." (German: "We are forever lost in the desert of eternal darkness") .

A street scene follows. A woman is swinging newspapers back and forth. Subheads: "Qu'elle est belle - How beautiful she is" (German: "How beautiful she is.") You see a newspaper, a woman (Alice Prin) peeps out. On the street again, the man meets the woman with the newspapers. The two go into a building where they find a glass vessel on a pile of newspapers. In the glass filled with liquid there is a starfish. The camera fades out with a trick screen .

In the next shot a man looks at the starfish in the glass. This is followed by a close-up of the living, moving marine animal in the glass. This is followed by newspaper sheets that are blown across the beach by the wind and a man who tries to collect them. Then the close-up of a newspaper article with three asterisks . A person is being stroked blurred. A train journey follows. Finally a pan on a port. Then a new shot with a hyanzinth and the subtitle: "Si les fleurs étaient en verre - if the flowers were in glass" (German: "If the flowers were made of glass.").

This is followed by a film montage of several scenes, which among other things show the starfish in the glass rotating. Again a hyanzinth is in the picture. A woman lying down is blurred. The camera fades out. This is followed by the filmed still life of a bottle of wine, a filled wine glass, a starfish and bananas on a newspaper. At first blurred, then you can clearly see a woman's leg standing on a book, next to it is a starfish. Blurred again, a woman in a park approaches the camera. A subheading: "Belle, Belle comme une fleur de verre - beautiful, beautiful like a flower of glass" (German: "Beautiful, beautiful as a flower made of glass"). Then a starfish in close-up. The couple can be seen blurred again - they masked. This is followed by a look through the mask and the subtitle: “belle comme une fleur de chair” (German: “beautiful as a flower made of flesh”).

Then you see the man with the starfish glass again looking at his hands. Lines are painted on his palms. Subheads: "Il faut battre les morts quand ils sont froids. - One must beat the dead while they are cold "(German:" You have to beat the dead when they are cold "). Another staircase, a man climbs. A woman can be seen blurred with a knife. A starfish lies on a staircase. Subheads: "Les murs de la Santé - The walls of the Sante" (German: The walls of health). This is followed by a pan across a street, up a wall into the sky. Subheads: "Et si tu trouves sur cette terre une femme à l'amour sincère ... - And if you find on this earth a woman of sincere love ..." (German: "And if you find a woman with true love on this earth ... "). This is followed by a view of a river. The woman is blurred over a fire. Subheads: "Belle comme une fleur de feu - beautiful like a flower of fire" (German: "Beautiful as a flower of fire"). The next scene shows a person wearing a toga and a spear, then another street. Subheads: “Le soleil, un pied à l'étrier, niche un rossignol dans un voile de crêpe. - The sun, one foot in the stirrup, nestles a nigtingale in a veil of crepe. "(German:" The sun, one foot in the stirrup, a nightingale nests in a veil of crepe. "). A sleeping woman can now be seen in close-up. Subheads: "Vous ne rêvez pas - You are not dreaming" (German: "You do not dream").

A third time, filmed blurred, the woman approaches the camera in a park and meets the male actor. A third person finally joins them, takes the woman in his arms, the two disappear from the picture, the man remains behind. A blurred close-up shows the abandoned man's face. Subheads: "quelle était belle - how beautiful she was" (German: "how beautiful she was"). The man is briefly seen sitting in front of the glass, blurred. Subheads: "quelle est belle". The starfish follows in close-up. Then a picture of the woman with the title “belle”, whereby a pane of glass on which the title was painted finally splinters. A door closes. Fade out.

reception

In Man Ray - His Complete Works, photo historian Sandra S. Phillips noted: “In L'Etoile de mer , the 'boy meets girl' motif is constantly demoralized by erratic insertions - sensual moments that stand next to images of a deserted street or newspapers flying around. "

In an interview with Pierre Bourgeade in 1972, Man Ray summed up: “In my film L'Étoile de mer there are no doors. All the doors have disappeared. People disappear without going through doors because there aren't any. ”However, there are two scenes in which a door is clearly shown.

literature

Jörg Bernardy : Blurring and fleeting love in surrealist films. Economies of writing and image in “L'Étoile de mer”. In: Look and Introduce. Controlled imagination in the cinema. Edited by Heinz-Peter Preußer. Schüren, Marburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-89472-853-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandra S. Phillips: Subject with Variations - Man Rays Photography in the Twenties and Thirties. In: Man Ray - His Complete Works. Edition Stemmle, ISBN 3-7231-0388-X , page 200
  2. ↑ Merry Forresta: Man Ray in Hollywood 1940–1951. In: Man Ray - Complete Works, page 322