The Marchesa Luisa Casati was a major figure in early 20th-century European society. She left her mark on her time with her extravagance, her theatrical appearance, and her taste for the occult; giving large, lavish masked balls, she rubbed shoulders with both high society and avant-garde artists. Her eccentricities and beauty forged her reputation as a femme fatale and contributed to her celebrity. She became a legend among her contemporaries, notably by hosting the Ballets Russes. She amazed the audience by walking with cheetahs on leashes and wearing live snakes as jewelry.
Man Ray. Dead leaf 1943. Remarkable for its simplicity, this photograph of a brittle castor oil plant leaf appeared with four others by Man Ray in the October 1943 issue of Minicam Photography. In its caption, Man Ray wrote with unusually poignant intensity that he knew that “the dying leaf would completely disappear tomorrow.” One is tempted to interpret the work’s melancholy as the artist’s growing dissatisfaction with his lack of recognition and financial success in Los Angeles, and his fear that the work he had left behind in France would be destroyed during the war.
Dreams that money can buy is an American experimental film written, produced and directed by surrealist artist and filmmaker Hans Richter, released in 1947. Several artists contributed to this film: Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Darius Milhaud and Fernand Léger. The film won the award for most original contribution to the progress of cinematography at the Venice International Film Festival in 1947.
Joe/Narcissus (Jack Bittner) is an ordinary man who has just signed a contract to rent a room. As he wonders how he is going to pay the rent, he realizes that he can see the contents of his own brain unfolding by staring into his eyes in a mirror. He then realizes that he can apply this gift to others and creates a company where he will sell his clients (frustrated and neurotic of all kinds) tailor-made dreams based on what he was able to discover about their minds. The waiting room is crowded from the first day of its activity.
Each of the film’s seven dream sequences is actually the creation of an avant-garde artist
DantéBéa 