Jacques-André Boiffard
Camera
Biography
Jacques-André Boiffard, also known as J.A. Boiffard, initially studied at medical school in Paris until devoting himself to the Surrealist art scene led by André Breton. In 1924, he began working under Man Ray as an apprentice, training as a photographer and often operating cameras on Ray's experimental short films. Boiffard eventually split from the Breton movement and struck out on his own with limited success. Following his father's death, he returned to school, merging his photographic skills with his medical training to become a radiologist from 1940 to 1959, later dying at age 58.
Known For
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.
Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray
A look at Paris in 1928 in black and white and then color sequences filmed in the same places in 1959.
Paris la belle
Mannequin hands hold a pair of dice. A castle is perched on a hilltop. Below it, a posh, modern villa. Meanwhile, far from Paris, two men with masked faces play dice in a bar. They decide to drive to Paris. Country roads, hills, fences. The posh "chateau" appears again: meticulous garden, fancy interior, odd sculptures. And at home? "No one, NO ONE." For the next two days, masked figures play dice, frolic by the pool, perform exercises with a ball. Two new figures arrive. Masked. They search and find the dice. They dance. Mannequin hands hold a pair of dice.