SYMPHONIE DIAGONALE (1924)
Article 4272 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-25-2013
Directed by Viking Eggeling
No cast
Country: Germany
What it is: Abstract animation

Figures appear and disappear with rhythmic regularity.

Here’s another foray into the world of pure abstract film. In this one, the focus seems to be on the rhythm of the items appearing, growing, changing and disappearing; each pair of images seems to have a matching rhythm. In some ways, it’s quite remarkable; one is tempted to want to compose some music to go along with the images. However, that may partially be due to the fact that the copy that I watched of this at archive.org doesn’t have any music to go along with it, and this is a bit of a problem, because without the music, this one gets to be a bit of a bore, especially with a running time of seven minutes. Still, I do like that I was able to see a clear discipline and focus to the project; with some abstract film pieces, it is difficult to tell what they’re trying to accomplish.