Allures (1961). An early masterpiece
of Avant-Garde Cinema, a sensory trip into the Self. Provided
courtesy CVM; 16mm film preserved with the support of the National Film Preservation
Foundation.
Samadhi (1966-67) evokes the ecstatic state achieved by the meditator
where individual consciousness merges with the Universe (Moritz).
Epilogue (2005), at Hirshhorn only. By way of a pure Visual Music experience,
the Hirshhorn has commissioned a major new work from the well known abstract
film artist Jordan Belson who has distilled 60 years of visionary sound and
images into a twelve minute videofilm, synchronized to a symphonic tone poem
"Isle of the Dead" by the great lyric composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Produced by Center for Visual Music, with support from the NASA Art Program
(Special premiere, May 14, MOCA Grand Ave, Ahmanson Auditorium)
...the special intensities and subtleties of live light cause others, like
Charles Dockum (1904-1977) to devote over 40 years to the perfection of his
fine Mobilcolor Projector, a classic example of the plight of the color organ.
The Mobilcolor, a large, complex mechanism, requires two people to operate
it for an elaborate composition - but the resultant spectacle is definitely
worth it. The imagery can be hard-edged or amorphous, and can be programmed
to move at specific speeds in smooth, definite patterns. The wide range of
controlled light intensity, with several (overlapping) sources, offers a visual
delicacy that can not be reproduced on film or video. - Dr. William Moritz,
"Towards a Visual Music," 1985.
For STUDY NO.
7, Fischinger found in Brahms' 'Hungarian Dance No. 5' a perfect vehicle for
his optical experiments. On one hand, the sharp, fast rhythms are an ideal
counterpoint for Fischinger's first complete exploration of absolute darkness
as a space matrix, with hard-edged shapes twisting, flickering and curving
through it, rushing past the viewer, razor thin, with astounding illusions
of depth. On the other hand, the sensuous gypsy violins are played off against
soft but solid shapes that curl about each other with rich geometric languor.
Altogether the images are an excellent culmination of the basic visual concepts
Fischinger had been working out in the first six studies, wherein the figures
gain a modicum of interest in themselves, but function primarily as tracers
of complex space constructs. Conceived, charted and executed like the rest
of the black and white studies with thousands of separate charcoal drawings
on paper, the classically simple effects here are no less amazing in their
own way than the astounding multiplicity of STUDY NO. 8. - Dr. William Moritz,
Film Culture . 35mm Film preserved by CVM in association with Cinematheque
quebecois.
Visually, ALLEGRETTO
is very rich indeed. Fischinger's fascination with the new (to him) technique
of cell animation led him to experiment with multi-layered see-through constructions
which are more diverse and complex on the surface than those in most of his
other films. At the same moment, one sees a background pattern of two overlapping
concentric radiating circles, comet-like figures, sparkling and stretching
diamonds, a row of teeth-like triangles gliding down one side of the frame
like a liberated soundtrack, and other sensuous or mechanized motifs, each
moving independently. The colors are California colors - the pinks and turquoise
and browns of desert sky and sand, the orange of poppies, and the green of
avocados. The figures work themselves up into a brilliant and vigorous conclusion,
bursting with skyscrapers and kaleidoscopes of stars/diamonds, and every facet
of the chic Hollywood design of the thirties. It is a celebration, plain and
simple, of the American lifestyle, seen fresh and clean through the exuberant
eyes of an immigrant. - Dr. William Moritz, Film Culture. Provided courtesy
CVM; HD transfer by CVM from new preservation negative.
[Radio Dynamics]
I believe this to be Fischinger's best film, the work in which he most perfectly
joined his craftsmanship with his spiritual ideas into a meaningful and relatively
faultless whole. No music distracts from the visual imagery which moves with
sufficient grace and power of its own. The film has the structure of yoga
itself: We see first a series of exercises, only exercises for the eyes or
the sense of vision - fluctuating and stretching rectangular objects; then
we see a statement of two icons representing meditation, one an image of flight
into an infinite vortex defined by finite movement, and the other an image
of two eyes' irises opening and expanding/ contracting while between them
grows a third eye of inner/cosmic consciousness. After a brief introductory
exposition of these three themes, each is repeated in a longer, developed
version, the exercises working themselves up into complex stroboscopic flickers,
and the hypnotic rhythms of the expanding/contracting eyes unite with the
motion of the passing rings of the vortex, making the flight become a two-way,
inward and outward, flight with the vortex as the eye of the observer as well
as the eye of the universe. - Dr. William Moritz, Film Culture. 35mm film
preserved by the Academy Film Archive; provided courtesy Fischinger Archive.
HD transfer by CVM.
ORNAMENT SOUND, 1932, b/w, sound, excerpt from film preserved by CVM with
support of MNAM/Centre Pompidou. Link to Article by Oskar Fischinger on his
It was with persistent energy that Eggeling set out to work..in an entirely
new area. There were a few pioneers here and there who wanted to accomplish
the same thing but did not know of one another's work. There were no experiences,
no technical institutions, no method, and no model. They all had to create
everything on their own With no means at his disposal other than extreme effort
and deep conviction, and without once abandoning the way of the artist, Eggeling
neared his goal step by step. To be sure, his Diagonale Symphonie had
not yet solved all the problems of an absolute film. But, all things considered,
I still think that Eggeling produced the definitive work, which served as
a source of inspiration for others and made their own work less difficult.
- Adolf
Behne. Zehn Jahre Novembergruppe, special issue of Kunst der Zeit, 1927, p.
32 
Elias Romero:
Stepping Stones (excerpt), 1968-69, color, sound. Original film
is 33 minutes. 
We witness an expression of group consciousness at any given moment. The range
of their vocabulary is limitless because it's not confined to one point in
time, one idea, one emotion. Depending on the variety of basic materials (they
use everything from liquids to video projection to laser interferometry) they
can continue into infinity...Their work strikes one precisely as a synaesthetic
movie, yet a movie in which each image emanates from its own projector, its
own human sensitivity. - Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema, 1970, on the
SWTB light show performances.
Then Harry began painting directly on the film strip, thus avoiding the cost
of extra negatives and prints, except, of course that Hy Hirsh had to help
with optical printing to ensure that the delicate painted film-strip was not
scraped or scratched during the lab's printing process. On May 12, 1950, Art
in Cinema screened the premiere of four painted films by Harry Smith. They
were titled Strange Dream, Message from the Sun, Interwoven
and Circular Tensions and the program notes [stated] that each one
of the hundreds of painted film frames is a work of art. The films were accompanied
by a live jazz band...Harry told me that he was jazz-crazy at that time, particularly
for Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, and insisted that he had synchronized
the first three painted films to jazz performances by Dizzy Gillespie: Guarachi
Guaro, Algo Bueno and Manteca. - Dr. William Moritz, "Harry Smith,
Mythologist," presented at Harry Smith Symposium, Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles 2001 
Yantra (1957), color, sound. Preserved
by CVM with support from MNAM/Centre Pompidou. HD transfer by CVM.
Lapis (1966), color, sound. Preserved
by CVM with support from MNAM/Centre Pompidou. HD transfer by CVM.
Joshua White: Joshua Light Show Liquid Loops (1969,
excerpt). Courtesy the filmmaker.