Experimenting with cinematic formality, Dada technique, and Surrealist imagery, the short films of avant-garde artist Man Ray would come to form the foundations of Cinéma pur. His looseness and artistic freedom challenge the audience to watch kinetic fragments and images with a more responsible, arguably more perceptive, eye. Complementing the release of the new 4K restoration of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (on which Ray was a collaborator and onset photographer), the Quad presents three of Ray’s films. The cinépoéme Leave Me Alone (1926) utilizes Dada mobiles, self-dubbed Rayographs, double exposure, and soft focus to ambiguous and humorous effect, while The Sea Star (1928) and The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice (1929) develop on length and narrative—the former an out-of-focus romance and the latter an extended travelogue.

Leave Me Alone 
1926, 15m

The Sea Star 
1928, 15m

The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice 
1929, 19m