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.
"Rue Campagne-Première" is the earliest available in the collection, and the exact point of it remains unclear, although a good guess would be that Man Ray was just fooling around with camera angles when he made it. Unlike other home movies, none of his friends are present: the one-minute clip focuses on a street shop, apparently the title location ("Rue" means street and I assume "Campagne-Première" is the exact street name) shown through three views: first, a rather well-composed view from above; second, a view through a lens mask so that the street is shown sideways (a neat experimental angle); and third, a shaky shot similar to the previous one but with no mask and completely non-stationary. It seems that Man Ray might have had something in mind when he created this, as perhaps he hoped to include at least the first two shots in one of his Dada films and never did so. In any case, an interesting experiment, though still no more than an amateur home movie.
"Rue Campagne-Première" is the earliest available in the collection, and the exact point of it remains unclear, although a good guess would be that Man Ray was just fooling around with camera angles when he made it. Unlike other home movies, none of his friends are present: the one-minute clip focuses on a street shop, apparently the title location ("Rue" means street and I assume "Campagne-Première" is the exact street name) shown through three views: first, a rather well-composed view from above; second, a view through a lens mask so that the street is shown sideways (a neat experimental angle); and third, a shaky shot similar to the previous one but with no mask and completely non-stationary. It seems that Man Ray might have had something in mind when he created this, as perhaps he hoped to include at least the first two shots in one of his Dada films and never did so. In any case, an interesting experiment, though still no more than an amateur home movie.
