Television review Man Ray photographed his friends intimately in the summer paradise of 1937 – A fascinating French documentary shows the group’s way of life without being shy

Culture|Television review

Surrealists and those close to them are favorite children of cultural documentaries. Something in their way of life and, of course, in their art, still fascinates, and a mythical glow hovers around them.

The myth also lives on in a recent documentary depicting one core group and their summer in a holiday paradise in the south of France. The year was 1937, and after that the carefree times began to be over.

Supervisor François Lévy-Kuentz is an experienced author of art documentaries. Artists on the French Riviera is built above all by the photographer Man Rayn on film materials. Ray had access to color film and was excited to try it too.

Mouginsin Man Rayn and his then-girlfriend gathered at the village lodge Ady Fidelin along with the poet Paul Éluard Nusch-with his wives, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar as well as a photographer Lee Miller her future husband Roland Penrosen with. Four couples cruising in a wide variety of relationships, getting lost and nodding.

Man Ray wasn’t the only photographer in the group, as both Dora Maar and Lee Miller were already making their own careers at that point and pushing away from the role of the muse. Instead, Nusch Éluard and Ady Fidelin were pure music: absolutely beautiful and half younger than their men. There’s a documentary about Lee Miller in the arena that’s worth watching alongside this.

Documentary the footage is fascinating as it shows the lifestyle of the group without being shy. Men fool around in front of the camera, usually on summer gowns, while women’s clothing dwindles picture by picture, and eventually more and less clear shots of group sex are found.

The narrator’s style is in a disturbing contrast to the mood of the images. Shyness and hypocritical poetry are not these days. The documentary peeks into the intimate lives of famous artists, so what about beautifying it. The humiliating relationship between Picasso and Mary is strangely talked about.

Summer 1937 The historical significance opens towards the end. There was a civil war in Spain, and Picasso completed his most famous work that year Guernican. The documentary tells how Dora Maar assisted Picasso in her work, and Paul Éluard also contributed to its birth.

Man Ray fled his homeland to the United States and did not return to France until after the war. Picasso remained in France and seceded during the war years. Lee Miller became a famous war reporter and photographer who described the liberation of concentration camps and, among other things, Hitler apartment.

Artists on the French Riviera, Theme at 8pm and Yle Areena.