Emak-Bakia

Emak-Bakia (Basque for Leave me alone) is a 1926 film directed by Man Ray. Subtitled as a cinépoéme, it features many techniques Man Ray used in his still photography (for which he is better known), including Rayographs, double exposure, soft focus and ambiguous features.

Emak-Bakia (Leave Me Alone)
Directed byMan Ray
Produced byMan Ray
Written byMan Ray
StarringMan Ray
Kiki of Montparnasse (Alice Prin)
Jacques Rigaut
Release date
  • 1926 (1926) (France)
Running time
19 minutes
CountryFrance

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). The film then cuts to a car arriving and a passenger leaving with briefcase entering a building, opening the case revealing men's shirt collars which he proceeds to tear in half. The collars are then used as 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 to complain it was giving him a headache and hurting his eyes. Another man told him to shut up, and they both started to fight. The theatre turned into a frenzy, the fighting ended up out in the street, and the police were called in to stop the riot.
  • Emak bakia can also mean "give peace" ("emak" is the imperative form of the verb "eman", which means "give") in Basque.
  • In 2012, Spanish director Oskar Alegria directed a feature-length documentary film La Casa Emak Bakia which details his search for the house where Emak Bakia was filmed.[1]

References
  1. IMDB entry for La Casa Emak Bakia

Sources

See also
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