The Starfish (1928)

Interesting facts

L'Étoile de mer is a 1928 film directed by Man Ray and based on a short poem and longer scenario, both written by Robert Desnos. The film depicts a couple acting through scenes that are shot out of focus, and with Desnos himself as the second man in the final scene.

Production

Shortly before sailing to Cuba on 21 February 1928, Desnos had written the short poem above inspired by a starfish he owned, and which he viewed as the symbolic incarnation of a lost love. During a farewell dinner held that evening with Man Ray, Kiki and one of her friends, Desnos read out this poem, further elaborated into a scenario comprising fifteen to twenty verses, and using the lines of the short poem as intertitles.

Man Ray used a gelatine dry-plate process to achieve the effect of textured glass and render the spectral images of the film like a drawing or rudimentary painting, thus also resolving his concern about the censorship of nude scenes.

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.

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