Gioco di cappelli

Dada. Surreal. Experimental. Avant garde. Weird. Yet I couldn't stop watching. Watching. Watch. Stop watch. Stopwatch moving in time lapse photography; is the message here that time flies when one is having fun? Are we supposed to be having fun here? Bowler hats flying through the air turn into tea cups immediately before they land and crash into pieces.

Bow ties and handguns and x-rays of handguns with minds of their own.

I like the bits with the fire hoses, and the concentric circles, bull's eyes, which don't want to be shot at. And who can blame them? Bearded men stroking their beards and their negative images doing likewise.

Is the plot everyday items rebelling against everyday routine, or just excuses to show trick photography? Making art out of something ugly? Anti art? The clock strikes twelve, splits into two even pieces. Ende. Ende. Ende neu.

It took German filmmaker Hans Richter a number of years to begin to use film as its own medium - and not merely as a continuation of his expressionistic paintings. That's all his first films were, as evidenced by the Rhythmus series that used moving shapes instead of inanimate objects to create abstraction, making them more like cartoons and less like the abstract films later created by the likes of Stan Brakhage. By the time Richter made "Ghosts Before Breakfast", his most famous work, he had really hit his stride and learned all the interesting things he could do with film not applicable to painting. Looking at his later work, one would never guess he had been a painter - this is how much he had deviated from his previous work.

According to some sources, "Ghosts Before Breakfast" is not a complete film today, likely due to the efforts of the Nazis who considered it anti-German art and attempted to destroy every copy. It's hard to imagine exactly what they had in mind by labeling it as such - to everyone else, the film is a six-to-nine minute short (depending on which copy you view) that features inanimate objects rebelling against humans in a rather abstract manner. The title is suggestive of a greater narrative regarding ghosts, but the film has no indication of this as it uses multiple gimmicks including negative photography, stop motion and mirror images to make the abstract events all more chaotic. There is a playful but frantic tone to the imagery on display, with remarkable photography edited the right way to get the desired effect, illustrating the fact that Richter was brilliant both as a painter and a filmmaker.

Surrealism/Dadaism in the service of irrationality but also against hierarchies, mostly malign ones as shown in the revolver-target deconstruction. Funny and bold in terms of the angles, the cuts and the (rudumentary) special effects this is film as a revolutionary and radical art; no surprise really that the Nazis denounced it as 'degenerate'. In this sense, the objects' revolt suggest wider networks with humans.

Hans Richter's "Vormittagspuk" ("Ghosts Before Breakfast" in English) is basically an excuse to be zany. A series of free-associative images, its message is that not even inanimate objects will succumb to regimentation. Sure enough, the Nazis tried to censor the movie, labeling it degenerate art. Seriously, those twerps considered EVERYTHING anti-German!

Fortunately, the goose-steppers' attempts to destroy the movie failed, and it's available on Vimeo. I recommend it.

Ghosts Before Breakfast is a light-hearted and playful Dada film. Its imaginative images come at you in a nice steady rhythm. Those visuals incorporate a fair amount of trick photography and effects, and they are all done really well. The most indelible image in the film is the flying hats but there are many other repeat motives, such as revolvers and beard stroking intellectuals. Like Dada in general, there is a definite sense of humour. At times it's almost in slapstick territory. I suppose if Charlie Chaplin was to have made a Dada film then it might have looked something like this. Overall, this is a good example of a 1920's art-film with a comic touch. And like so many of its peers it easy to see its influence on modern Pop Art. Interesting to also note that the Nazi Party tried to destroy all copies of this film when the got into power in Germany not long after this was made. They considered it decadent - this should be taken as a recommendation.