First shown
in Frankfurt in 1921, “Lichtspiel Opus I” was hailed as the birth of a new art
form, christened as “Visual Music” by
one critic and “Absolute Film” by another. Ruttmann created his abstract
animation – “Lichtspiel” translates as “game of light” –by daubing oil paint
onto a glass plate, then wiping it clean or augmenting the pattern for the next
frame he shot. Informed by his studies of painting and architecture and his
work as a graphic designer, Ruttmann’s swelling and shifting colour-shapes
recall Matisse’s cut-outs. The gravity-defying movements resemble a kite-dance
and the biomorphic forms sometimes suggest the deep ocean’s fantastical
creatures. There’s a sequence that’s
like waves released from the tide’s lockstep rhythm and reveling in free
expression; another that looks like a sun rocking in a child’s swing; and a
section where falling leaves seem to have acquired the ability to flock like
birds.
Despite its
restless invention - every second a new canvas of minimalist abstraction –
Ruttman was dissatisfied with his debut effort, much preferring later
instalments in the series: the twilight
swirl of Opus II, the rectilinear fantasia of Opus III, the stark grid patterns
of Opus IV. Alongside these abstract
short films, Ruttmann created more figurative animations for adverts, the non-animated
masterwork Berlin-Symphony of a Metropolis and – bizarrely – a sound-only film,
Wochenende. He also contributed a dream
sequence to Fritz Lang’s movie Siegfried.
But taking a less salubrious turn, Ruttmann’s later career saw him
working with Hitler’s favorite film maker Leni Riefenstahl on The Triumph of
the Will and making propaganda reels. He died in 1941 from injuries incurred as
a war photographer on the Russian front.
- SR
