Lichtspiel: Opus I
About Lichtspiel: Opus I
Painted geometric shapes grow, split, and cross a dark field. There are no people and no photographed places. The movement is the whole film. Max Butting wrote music for it.
Cast & crew
More about Lichtspiel: Opus I
Walter Ruttmann made the film between 1919 and 1921 and patented an animation table in June 1920. It premiered on 27 April 1921 at the Berlin Marmorhaus and went into German theatrical release in 1922. Wikidata gives the length as 13 minutes and names Max Butting as composer.
Themes
Technique
Ruttmann worked from an animation table he patented in June 1920, shooting painted forms rather than live action.
Music
Max Butting wrote the score paired with the film on Wikidata.
Preservation
Walter Ruttmann's Wikipedia entry calls it the oldest fully abstract motion picture known to survive.
Notes
- Ruttmann financed the early abstracts through his own Ruttmann-Film GmbH in Munich.
- Opus II, Opus III, and Opus IV followed through 1925.
- The shapes were painted and filmed on an animation stand, not drawn on cels in a studio series.
Scenes
- Large curved forms swell until they fill the frame and then break into smaller shapes.
Influenced
- Early abstract films by Oskar Fischinger
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Lichtspiel Opus I (1921).webm)
