Bernard Cribbins - Right Said Fred (1962)

 

animator unknown

RIP Bernard Cribbins

Hans Richter – Rhythmus 21 (1921) / Viking Eggelin - Diagonal-Symphonie (1924)

“Rhythmus 21” and “Diagonal-Symphonie” are by two close colleagues associated with Dada – Hans Richter and Viking Eggelin. Both were heavily inspired by music –using terms like counterpoint and orchestration, and  referring to elements of any given work as themes or instruments. 

"Born in Sweden, Eggelin travelled around Europe and settled in Paris a few years before WW1  where he dedicated himself  to finding a universal language of abstract symbols, which he would draw onto large scrolls of paper. Eggeling’s Diagonal Symphonie, took three or four years to make and was a step towards “an all embracing system based on the mutual attraction and repulsion of paired forms”. The name Eggeling gave for that system was Thorough Bass of Painting  - thorough bass (also known as basso continuo, or figured bass) is yet  another term from music, referring to an approach that flourished in the 17^th and 18^th centuries involving keyboard  improvisations over a stable bassline. Bach would be the supreme exponent there, at least until The Doors! Eggeling believed that film would reach its highest potential as a completely non-representational form with no reference to the literary or theatrical (so there goes plot, character, motivation) or indeed the natural world.  

"Richter’s Rhythmus 21 is black-and-white, but with the tragically lost later film Rhythmus 25, he embarked upon the “orchestration of colour” and devised a system of notation on graph paper, which according to the critic Brian O’Doherty promised “a method of composing films according to scores, where both musical and visual consideration could come into play” - SR, lecture given at the Tate Modern

Stills from an unfinished Han Richter film about the life of Gustav Meyrink, to be titled The House at the Last Lantern 

(via Lanny Quarles)