FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Program presented in association with Center for Visual Music and The Fischinger Archive.

All films are 35mm. Program approx 70 minutes.

Still from "Allegretto" (1936-1943), 35mm film by Oskar Fischinger. (Image © The Fischinger Trust, courtesy Center for Visual Music.)

We’re pleased to present this retrospective of his short films, featuring restored prints of Circles (1933), Composition in Blue (1935), Allegretto (1936), Radio Dynamics (1942), Motion Painting No. 1 (1947), and many other rarely seen works.

This special presentation will also feature a 35mm cinemscope composite film recreating Fischinger’s multiple-projection performances, R-1, A Form-Play, (ca. 1926-33).

German-born painter and filmmaker Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) is one of the most important artists of the 20^th century. His abstract animations — made between the 1920s and ’40s — greatly expanded the possibilities of the medium of film, presenting a range of inventive, visual and temporal techniques and pioneering a new form of audio-visual art.

While Fischinger’s work is rarely seen today, he has had a great effect on generations- from inspiring such experimenters as Harry Smith and John Cage to his work and influence on Disney’s Fantasia to his influence on modern motion graphics.

For more information about Oskar Fischinger, visit www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Fischinger/ CVM is also now the custodian of the Fischinger’s papers, access to which is available to bona fide scholars and researchers. See also the book Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger (Indiana Univ. Press, 2004) by William Moritz.

PROGRAM

Oskar Fischinger with Motion Painting plexiglass panels, circa 1947. (Image © Fischinger Trust, courtesy Center for Visual Music.)

All films were shown from 35mm prints preserved by the Academy Film Archive, Center for Visual Music and Fischinger Archive, with the support of Film Foundation, Duetsches Filminstitut, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Cinémathèque Québécoise.

[Spirals] (ca. 1926)
B/W, silent, 3 min.
Stunning spirals and moire patterns, probably made using pairs of rotating glass discs with intricate patterns painted on them.

[Walking from Munich to Berlin] (1927)
B/W, silent, 7 min.
A series of unedited, very brief (sometimes single-frame) shots filmed at varying speeds during said hike, depicting buildings, landscapes, and people he encountered along the way. Essentially a “home movie,” it was probably never formally screened during his lifetime.

Study No. 1 (ca. 1929)
B/W, silent, 2 min.
Originally accompanied live on the Wurlitzer Organ by Hans Albert Mattausch and Gert Thomas (the house organists at the Kamera Unter den Linden theater in Berlin).

Study No. 2 (ca. 1930)
B/W, silent, 2 min.
Originally synchronized to “Vaya, Veronica,” a Spanish fandango released by Electrola Records (EG 1663). That recording is believed to be lost, although other versions do exist.

Study No. 5 (1930)
B/W, sound, 3:15 min.
Music: “I’ve Never Seen a Smile Like Yours,” a popular foxtrot that had appeared as a number in an American musical feature, The Perfect Alibi.

Study No. 6 (1930)
B/W, sound, 2:30 min.
Music: “Los Verderones” by Jacinto Guerrero

Study No. 7 (1931)
B/W, sound, 2:30 min.
Music: “Los Verderones” by Jacinto Guerrero

[Liebesspiel] (Love Games) (ca. 1934)
B/W, silent, 2 min.
Originally screened with music, unknown.

Koloraturen (Coloratura) (1932)
B/W, sound, 2.5 min.
Commissioned by Froelich Film as a trailer for their feature film, Gitta Discovers Her Heart, starring Gitta Alpar, a popular operetta singer of the time.

Kreise (Circles) [Tolirag ad version] (1933)
B/W, sound, 2 min. Music: excerpts from Tannhauser by Wagner and Sigurd Jorsalfar by Grieg.
Commissioned as a commercial for the Tolirag advertising agency, whose slogan was “Alle Kreise erfasst Tolirag” (“Tolirag reaches all circles of society”).

Kreise (Circles) [abstract version] (1933)
B/W, sound, 2 min. Music: Wagner and Grieg
When the rights to the film reverted to Fischinger, he reshot the last portion of the film using a black background throughout and, of course, removing the plug for his original client, the Tolirag agency.

Muratti Greift Ein (1934)
Color, sound, 3 min.
Commercial made for the Muratti cigarette company, with stop-motion animated marching cigarettes. Music: excerpts from the ballet Die Puppenfee (The Fairy Doll) by Josef Bayer.

Muratti Privat (ca. 1935)
B/W, sound, 3 min.
Music: Mozart

Komposition in Blau (Composition in Blue) (1935)
Color, sound, 4 min.
Music: “Merry Wives of Winsor Overture” by Otto Nicolai

Allegretto [early version] (1936)
Color, sound, 2:30 min.
Music: “Radio Dynamics” by Ralph Rainger

Allegretto [late version] (1936-43)
Color, sound, 2:30 min.
Music: “Radio Dynamics” by Ralph Rainger
Similar to the early version, but with many of the original patterns and images in (color) negative over darker moving spiral patterns in the background.

Radio Dynamics (1942)
Color, intentionally silent, 4 min.

Motion Painting No. 1 (1947)
Color, sound, 11 min.
Music: Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 by J.S. Bach