Viking Eggeling's Film Symphonie Diagonale
Rohit Singh
Y8430
Viking Eggeling’s film, Symphonie Diagonale, was created just out of paper cut-outs and tin foil, by photographing patterns made out of them, one frame at a time. Axel Olson, a young Swedish painter, wrote to his parents in 1922 that Eggeling was working to "evolve a musical-cubistic style of film – completely divorced from the naturalistic style."
Symphonie Diagonale being a silent movie, it is quite evident from the literature and the name itself that music is an important aspect of the work. Some might even say that the film is incomplete in the sense that it is silent. A deeper contemplation reveals that it is not meant to be shown with music, it is music. Eggeling wanted each and every part of the film to have a musical aspect in it. He places, quite crucially, all the forms at the centre of the frame, as if; the frame was a concert hall. Composite …show more content…
It elaborated that abstract form offered the possibility of a language that is comprehended beyond all mental and national barriers. The basis for such a language lied in the identical form perception of human beings and offered the promise of a universal art as it had never existed before. One’s mind is competent enough to build forms out of even the most simplest and complicated emotions as well as thoughts, objects as well as ideas. This type of abstract art form allowed it to return to its main social function, by evoking emotions or ideas that were pure, natural and most important of all, untainted by social, cultural, and national realities. The abstraction that is being talked about, when reflected on paper, and rhythmically expressed took on the appearance of movement. Given that lack of movement or our inability to show motion through the canvas had crippled artists’ imagination for long, the idea of depicting motion (and even realising music) was a great leap
Y8430
Viking Eggeling’s film, Symphonie Diagonale, was created just out of paper cut-outs and tin foil, by photographing patterns made out of them, one frame at a time. Axel Olson, a young Swedish painter, wrote to his parents in 1922 that Eggeling was working to "evolve a musical-cubistic style of film – completely divorced from the naturalistic style."
Symphonie Diagonale being a silent movie, it is quite evident from the literature and the name itself that music is an important aspect of the work. Some might even say that the film is incomplete in the sense that it is silent. A deeper contemplation reveals that it is not meant to be shown with music, it is music. Eggeling wanted each and every part of the film to have a musical aspect in it. He places, quite crucially, all the forms at the centre of the frame, as if; the frame was a concert hall. Composite …show more content…
It elaborated that abstract form offered the possibility of a language that is comprehended beyond all mental and national barriers. The basis for such a language lied in the identical form perception of human beings and offered the promise of a universal art as it had never existed before. One’s mind is competent enough to build forms out of even the most simplest and complicated emotions as well as thoughts, objects as well as ideas. This type of abstract art form allowed it to return to its main social function, by evoking emotions or ideas that were pure, natural and most important of all, untainted by social, cultural, and national realities. The abstraction that is being talked about, when reflected on paper, and rhythmically expressed took on the appearance of movement. Given that lack of movement or our inability to show motion through the canvas had crippled artists’ imagination for long, the idea of depicting motion (and even realising music) was a great leap