Les Mystères du château de Dé (1929)

Les Mystères du château de Dé is a French fantasy film first released in 1929, directed by Man Ray.  The film stars Georges Auric, Le Comte de Beaumont, Le Vicomte de Noailles and Marie-Laure de Noailles.  It has also been released under the title: The Mysteries of the Chateau de De.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


The wooden hands of a mannequin hold a pair of dice.  "A throw of dice will never abolish chance"...   At St Bernard, a modern villa stands amidst the runs of an ancient castle.  Far away, in Paris, two men wearing stocking masks throw dice and decide to set out on their journey.  They drive across open French countryside and arrive at the villa.  The building is totally deserted...  Yet, in a forgotten corner, four young people, also wearing stocking masks, are throwing dice.  They decide to play in the swimming pool.  They amuse themselves for what seems like an eternity but they are soon gone.  Are these merely echoes of the past?  The next day, a man and a woman arrive in the deserted villa. They find the dice and decide to stay.  They become statues...

The most well-known film from the great surrealist artist Man Ray, Les Mystères du château de Dé is a hauntingly evocative poem to the transitory nature of life and a reminder of the role that chance plays in the grand scheme of things.  The film includes some memorable surrealist touches (including the opening shot of the dice in the mannequin’s hands and the fact that everyone in the film wears a stocking mask) and some thought-provoking poetic observations.  Often perplexing, Mystères du château de Dé is also a profoundly spiritual work, in which the spectator is as much a partipant as the masked actors.

The film was shot mainly in the villa of the Vincomte de Noailles, who also financed the film.  De Noailles was a keen supporter of avant-garde artists of the 1920s, sponsoring the work of, amongst others, Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, as well as Man Ray.

© James Travers 2002

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