Diagonal Symphony
About Diagonal Symphony
A tilted figure, mostly right angles at the start, grows as short lines and curves attach to it. It vanishes. Another figure starts. Each cycle lasts one or two seconds. The finished shapes suggest an ear, a harp, panpipes, or a piano, and then they are gone.
Cast & crew
More about Diagonal Symphony
Viking Eggeling made the film from scroll drawings he had begun with Hans Richter in 1921. Paper cut-outs and tin-foil figures were photographed a frame at a time. He reshot it three times. A version was shown in 1922 at the V.D.I. in Berlin. The final version opened on 3 May 1925 at the U.T. Kurfürstendamm, in the matinee Der absolute Film. German censorship passed it on 21 April 1925 (B.10335). Filmportal times 149 meters at 7 minutes at 16 frames a second, and credits Erna Niemeyer with the animation. Shooting was in Eggeling's Berlin flat.
Themes
Look
Eggeling and Erna Niemeyer photographed the cut-outs one frame at a time in the flat on Wormserstraße.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons. Filmportal also lists a later 2K scan.
Notes
- The German title is Diagonal-Symphonie. In the United States the title was sometimes printed Symphonie diaganale.
- Wikidata also lists Ré Soupault, the later name of Erna Niemeyer, as co-director and co-photographer.
- A Commons file is labeled 1924. This record's year is the 1925 public showing.
- Olga Neuwirth's name on some databases is not a 1925 score.
Scenes
- Lines and curves stick to a tilted figure, the figure disappears, and a new one starts within a second or two.
Influenced by
- Eggeling and Hans Richter's scroll drawings
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Symphonie diagonale)