Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray

An immersion into the surreal and dreamlike world of painter, photographer and filmmaker Man Ray (1890-1976), one of the most prolific American visual artists, through four of his short films, brought to life by the atmospheric music of SQÜRL.

The Isle of Conquest

A 1919 film directed by Edward José.

The Probation Wife

A 1919 film directed by Sidney Franklin.

Colomba

Not So Long Ago

Against the backdrop of New York City of the early 1850s, a young woman -- naively seeking to win the love she reads about in the romance novels she devours -- finds one prospect in an earnest denizen of the Bowery, and another in an elegant young aristocrat. Focusing on the bygone era's fashions, the novelty of the bicycle-built-for-two, and an inventor's quest for the horseless carriage, the film gently stirs the audiences' nostalgia for simpler times.

The Newer Woman

There is, at once, quite a change in Dot and her sweetheart Robert plainly doesn't like it. After a tussle with a burglar and a cop the couple come to an understanding.

Her Mother's Necklace

Bessie's father is a widower contemplating remarriage to widow Irene Hunt but Bessie jealously objects, fearing Irene will intrude on her relationship with her father.

The Woman Gives

A 1920 film directed by Roy William Neill.

The Ragged Edge

Howard Spurlock, wrongfully accused of theft, believes police are seeking his arrest. On "the ragged edge," he takes refuge in China, where he meets and is nursed back to health by Ruth Endicott, daughter of a missionary. They marry and go to an island in the South Seas where, later, his innocence is proved.

The Availing Prayer

William Rock, assistant cashier in a business concern, has a sick daughter. The doctor urges that she be taken immediately to another climate, and Rock, unable to get an advance on his pay, is desperate. He has been in the habit of taking the deposits to the bank every Saturday, and then going direct from the bank home. He determines that week to steal the money. On Saturday Rock is followed on the street by a couple of crooks. He goes into a telephone booth to phone his daughter May and her fiancé, a young physician, that they can start south with the younger sister at once. Taking the money out of the bank satchel, he stuffs it in his inside vest pocket and leaves with the empty bag in his hand. He goes down an alleyway to get rid of the satchel, but is assaulted by the gunmen and the bag taken from him.

Mystic Faces

Yano is a small delivery boy for his uncle, who keeps a curio shop in Chinatown. His loves are Tama, his sweetheart, and Bengi, his dog. Bengi is seized by dog catchers, but is rescued by Letty Stanford, for which Yano promises his fealty. Later Letty is kidnapped by Germans because of her war activities, and it is Yano who goes to her rescue and gets her free in spite of his diminutive size. The Little Japanese has paid his debt.

Kreutzer Sonata

Based -- loosely -- on Leo Tolstoy, this film starred feted stage star Nance O'Neil but is rather better remembered as Theda Bara's follow-up to the sensational A Fool There Was (1914).

Betty in Search of a Thrill

After graduating from a convent school, Betty travels to New York to visit her relatives, the Hastings. She quickly catches the eye of Jim Denning, a wealthy neighbor who proposes to her, but Betty decides to experience city life before settling down and finds work as a salesclerk. When the floorwalker becomes too familiar, Betty quits and her showgirl friend Maizie Follette helps her get a job as a cabaret dancer, but Betty finds that’s a tough racket too and decides city life on the loose isn’t for her.

Nearly a Lady

Young Frederica Calhoun, naïve to the ways of the world, having grown up on her father’s Montana ranch, is swept off her feet by the arrival of Lord Cecil Grosvenor, a prospective buyer. He opens her eyes to a hitherto undreamed-of world of refinement and he by her unfailing sweet disposition and sunny bubbling good spirits. They are soon engaged, but during a trip to New York to visit his sister Frederica begins to let her doubts get the better of her and disguising herself as a man follows him to the French Ball, but all turns out well in the end.

The Magpie

Dorothy Gerard, visiting a Washington D.C. suburb, receives a letter from her father announcing his return from California. He also mentions a series of robberies that have been plaguing Washington.

Carmen

A Spanish soldier falls under the spell of a fiery gypsy girl named Carmen. His obsession with her leads to his ruin.

Big Timber

Walter Sandry, holder of a mortgage on timber lands in the Pacific Northwest, arrives to claim his property. He comes into conflict with a rival company and with lumberjacks influenced by their foreman, Hampden, whom he later beats in a fight.

Three Mirrors Creature's Flashes of Flesh

In the aftermath of an emotional shock, a ruthless high-class manager faces her own abyss, becomes pervaded by a sensory spirit and undertakes a purifying voyage.

Divorce Coupons

Linda Catherton, a poor small town girl in search of a wealthy suitor, meets Roland Bland, a man of notorious reputation, at the wedding of her friend Teddy Beaudine. Although she does not love him, Linda accepts his marriage proposal, believing that alimony will compensate her eventually for the unhappy experiment; but following their honeymoon she acknowledges their mutual love and affection. Fontaine, Teddy's husband, who is in debt, discovers a letter from Linda indicating her real intentions in marriage and sends it to Roland, who then gives his wife grounds for a divorce but threatens to kill the informer. When Fontaine is killed, Linda and Roland suspect each other, but it develops that Ishtar Lane, who formerly loved Roland, committed the murder, hoping thus to assure his own happiness. Ishtar dies, and the couple are reconciled.

A Question of Honor

Wealthy Anne Wilmot vacationing along with her aunt Katherine at her fiancé Leon Morse's (Hull) Arizona mountain lodge discovers his plot to destroy a nearby hydroelectric engineering project in order to obtain the land for his railway. She thwarts the sabotage but find herself in a life and death struggle.

Brand Upon the Brain!

After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.

Wonderstruck

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

Five Seconds

Adriano is a middle-aged man living in a dilapidated villa in Tuscany, when a group of young idealistic students arrives to restore the villa's vineyards.

Vermiglio

In the last days of the Second World War, a deserting soldier disrupts a tranquil and isolated mountain community. For one family, his arrival brings excitement and romance, but tragedy lies in wait.

Salomé

After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.

The Unforgivable

A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.

Play Dirty

During World War II in North Africa, a group of British commandos disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital Nazi oil depot.

The Black Pirate

A nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.

Return

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.

Gigi & Nate

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Home Run

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

Come Sunday

Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

Imagine

A blind teacher breaks the rules to help a female student rediscover the pleasures of life.

Won't Back Down

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Hands of Stone

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

100 Sundays

Antonio, a former shipyard worker, leads a mild and peaceful life: he plays bowls with friends, takes care of his elderly mother, has an ex-wife with whom he is on excellent terms and Emilia, his only and beloved daughter When Emilia announces to him one day that she has decided to get married, Antonio is filled with joy, he can finally fulfill his dream by giving her the reception they have always dreamed of together being able to count on the savings of a lifetime.However, the bank of which he has always been a client seems to be hiding something, the employees are suddenly elusive and the director inexplicably changes constantly.The task of paying for his daughter's wedding will prove increasingly difficult and Antonio will discover, against his will, that those who keep our treasures don't always keep our dreams as well.

Strange Weather

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.

Holy Lands

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

Lucky Them

More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.

Tigertail

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.