Book Review: MAN RAY IN PARIS by Erin C. Garcia

Some people get all the luck, and no one's a better example of that maxim than Man Ray. An American painter, he hung out with 291 crowd and paid the bills with fashion photography. He met Marcel Duchamp in New York City after the Armory Show and the two quickly became besties. They couldn't talk, since Ray didn't speak French and I guess Duchamp refused to speak English (?); so they communicated through games like chess. Which quite frankly, is ADORKABLE. When Duchamp decided to return to Paris, Man Ray followed, and immediately found the perfect community of artists and intellectuals to hang with. Within a matter of weeks, he had his first gallery showing, was fluent in French, owned the perfect apartment and studio in Montparnasse, invented his own photographic process, and was flooded with commissions for photographic portraits and other projects.


Rrose Selavy, Marcel Duchamp's feminine alter-ego. Photograph by Man Ray, 1921.

So basically Man Ray is pretty kick-ass and interesting. As for this book about him, well, it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought I would get a lot more out of it.

It's super-short and literally took me less than half an hour to read. For someone completely unfamiliar with Man Ray's work, this would be a good introduction, but for everyone else I think it's pretty sparse. It covers a very short biography of Ray, then dives right into his photographs, which are very interesting. But there isn't much information about them. And there's absolutely nothing about his interest in alchemy or how some of his photographs are homages to other paintings, or about the short films he made with the surrealists, or anything really.

It is cool to look at all the different processes Ray experimented with during his years in Paris, especially solarization and Rayographs. But really I think you could find a more informative book just about anywhere.

If you do want to check out Man Ray in Paris, I'd recommend getting it from the library.

I read this book as part of Paris In July, a challenge hosted by Book Bath and Thyme for Tea. Click on the button for more details.

Fun link of the day: l'Etoile de Mer, one of the many movies Man Ray directed in collaboration with the surrealists.

Movie Review: PARIS, JE T'AIME

18 vignettes highlight the different arrondissements (or neighborhoods) and people that make up one of the greatest cities in the world, Paris.

Here's the thing: I love Paris. I hate big cities, but Paris is the one big city I could live in. So when it comes to a movie like this, which is basically a love letter to a city I love, I'm a sure bet.

I'm not going to tell you what all 18 short films were about (for that you can go to wikipedia), but there were definitely some standouts:

• "Quais de Seine" A young French man strikes up a friendship with a Muslim girl; a very optimistic and sweet film.
• "Porte de Choisy" A hair product salesman pays a visit to a Chinese-run beauty salon. This film started off strange but ended up very fanciful and fun.
• "Tour Eiffel" Two mimes fall in love. Why always the mimes??? Seriously.
• "Faubourg Saint-Denis" A short film starring Natalie Portland, and one of the most visually interesting vignettes in the entire movie. The more I think about this one, the more I'm impressed with it.
• "14e arrondissement" I liked this one because it reminded me of me! An American woman from Colorado visits Paris and describes in very s l o w French (which is how I speak it) what her visit was like. I just loved this one and it made me want to go back to Paris so badly I actually started crying, because I am a sap.

That's just five short films out of eighteen, but actually the majority of them are pretty good. A few are boring, and a few are like watching the drama team in high school (lots of shouting, dramatic statements, slapping, and--on my part--eye rolling), but the vast majority of them are 100% worth seeing.

That being said, when you watch them all in a row it gets to be exhausting. That's 18 different storylines in a two hour period! It felt way to long and even though I was enjoying it, after the first hour I wanted it to end. I'm glad I stuck with it, but personally I wish I had been able to view each short film one at a time over the course of several days.

There's not much to say beyond that other than, if you love Paris, this movie is definitely worth checking out.

I watched this movie as part of Paris In July, a month-long challenge hosted by Book Bath and Thyme for Tea. Check out Book Bath's blog for more details.