Rhythmus 21

I understand that Hans Richter's "Rhythmus 21" is an example of an absolute film, a genre that consists of shapes overlapping to music. This three-minute short is worth seeing as a historical reference as the start of Richter's Film Ist Rhythm series. It's nothing particularly special. The masterpieces from interwar Germany were "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Nosferatu" and "Metropolis".

I wonder which direction the era's cinema would've taken had the Nazis not taken over.

White boxes moving to the sides, like opening doors to a lift (or is it a black line which gets thicker, until it occupies the full frame?) opens this Dada short film, where the movements of white squares and white rectangles against a deep black background takes up two thirds of its brief run time. Then comes the final minute, when another white square enlarges to fill the frame completely, and black squares and various black geometrical shapes dance against a plain white square, all in complete silence, with absolutely no music score to accompany it.

Hypnotic, yet pointless, also meditative; it is calming to me to watch Richter's experimental work, and see the first time movement was even implied on film.

Hans Richter was not just a filmmaker; although thanks to works like these he is better remembered as such, he was also a painter who explored modern styles of painting (like those of the Dadaists). One of these styles was Cubism, which basically reduced paintings to no more than geometric shapes and colors; a very simple style, but one which was growing increasingly popular in the 20th century. "Rhythmus 21" (which is now 100 years old just about) is essentially a transfer then of that concept to film: there are no actors or anything onscreen in this three-minute film, which is the first in a series of "Rhythmus" shorts by the filmmaker (the other two were "Rhythmus 23" and "Rhythmus 25"). Instead, it is like watching one of Richter's paintings moving; the man himself has been quoted to say he saw his films as continuations of his paintings.

That said, this is an extremely simple film which can mainly be enjoyed in the context of less being more. All the film consists of are squares and lines shrinking and moving before the audience for around three minutes, with the rest of the space occupied by either a black or white background. Compared to the work of Stan Brakhage, it's hardly exceptional, but then again, it's cubism, all geometry, just transferred to film to allow these shapes movement and independence from the canvas. I could see it being enjoyed better as a painting than as a film, as that largely appears to be what Richter was going for; but regardless, an interesting beginning to one who would later take his definition of abstract to a whole new level.

This 3-minute "Avant-Garde" short is perhaps the single most inconsequential of the lot. Originally named RHYTHMUS 21 and the seventh of its ilk I had watched in one afternoon (with another to follow, capped by a feature-length film in the same vein!), I jokingly began to refer to it as "Litmus Test"!!

What we get here, basically, is a succession of shapes (rectangles, to be exact), photographed in a way that they move about and 'through' the screen, their zooming in and out suggesting the depth of the frame. One can only surmise that the original intention was to experiment (literally, play around) with the medium…and, if anything (as with a number of these efforts, in fact), a lot depends on the soundtrack chosen to accompany the visuals. In the end, it is safe to assume that I spent more time writing about the movie than actually experiencing it!!

This is a short film by Hans Richter--one of the very first experimental film makers. It is not meant to appeal to the masses but is simply an experiment by Richter. It consists of black and white shapes moving about the screen and has a definite cubist look to it. I see it as an interesting attempt by the artist to redefine what film is--in this case it's not intended to entertain but appears to be an attempt to expand what can CAN be. Because of this, I cannot assign this one a numerical score or say whether it's good or bad...it just is what it is. I wonder how the film would feel if it had an accompanying musical score (something you wouldn't have had when Richter made the film in the 1920s). More watchable than most art films but not something most folks would want to watch every day!