Emak-Bakia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Emak-Bakia (Basque for Leave me alone) is a 1926 film directed by Man Ray. Subtitled as a cinépoéme, it features many filming techniques used by Man Ray, including Rayographs, double exposures, soft focus and ambiguous features.
Synopsis
Emak-Bakia shows elements of fluid mechanical motion in parts, rotating artifacts showing his ideas of everyday objects being extended and rendered useless. Kiki of Montparnasse (Alice Prin) is shown driving a car in a scene through a town. Towards the middle of the film Jacques Rigaut appears dressed in female clothing and make-up. Later in the film a caption appears
La raison de cette extravagance (The reason for this extravagance)
And it cuts to a car arriving and a passenger leaving with briefcase entering a building, opening the case revealing mens shirt collars which he proceeds to tear in half. The collars are then used a focus for the film, rotating through double exposures.
Notes
The film features sculptures by Pablo Picasso, and some of Man Ray's mathematical objects both still and animated using a stop motion technique.
Originally a silent film, recent copies have been dubbed using music taken from Man Ray's personal record collection of the time. The musical reconstruction was by Jacques Guillot.
When the film was first exhibited, a man in the audience stood up and complained it was giving him a headache. Another man told him to shut up, and they both started to fight. They left the theater fighting and the police was called in to stop the fight.
Emak bakia can also mean "the female [gives] the peace" in Basque.
See also
