Man Ray’s filmography was thought to be completely established: four films made in the Twenties, to which a dozen or so successful collaborations were to be added, as well as a few failed projects. Now, since 1985, a number of films and fragments have been found, putting his cinematic activities under new light. There was initially great surprise at the discovery of these films, for which only a few friends could have even imagined the existence. Around the end of the Twenties, in fact, Man Ray lost no chance to state that he had abandoned cinema (…). These “unseen” films were for the most part found in boxes with neither a title nor a date. They had never been shown in public, and with the exception of La Garoupe, Man Ray did not mention them in his Autoportrait. They are “forgotten” and “found” films that raise questions regarding identification of the objects and persons present in them, their date and sometimes even the identity of their author. The main issue however regards their constitution. Since they were never shown in public, it may be that Man Ray did not consider them “works of art”. They were not put together and then brought to a close in the same way as the four films the author is famous for. We are instead dealing with what would later become known as home movies, films resembling current amateur cinema practices, and the only motivation seems to be that of recording personal activities and friends. It is hard not to treat as a work of art, something the artist did not consider as such, however it is also impossible for those watching not to see the artist hiding behind amateur practices.

Patrick de Haas, in Man Ray, Directeur du mauvais movies, Paris, Centre Pompidou, 1997