One of Oskar Fischinger's earliest films, Seelische Konstruktionen (as it is known in German), clearly points the way to the masterpieces of musically-blended experimental animation he would conceive in the decades to come. The sense of masterful timing and rhythm, the easy and natural -- though patently Fischinger-esque -- character traits of the subjects, and the smooth precision of both line and movement are all present already. Unique is the black-silhouetted, semi-cartoon characters (not nearly as rigidly self-contained as Lotte Reiniger's cut-out forms) which seem to adhere to no physical limitations whatsoever. Morphing into shapes, structures, objects, patterns, and even one another, as though they were made of pure mercury and set to music. As for the "story", it's rather non-sensical, and certainly silly, but also has a slightly dark and devious tinge to it as well; men becoming monsters, uncontrollable shape-shifting and the constant, almost desperate movement.
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"Seelische Konstruktionen" or "Spiritual Constructions" is a 10-minute short film by Oskar Fischinger from almost 90 years ago. However, I watched the 7-minute version from 1970, the reconstructed take on this little movie. So what is there to say? In my opinion, this one looks a bit like Lotte Reiniger's work, only that it is obviously not a fairytale and the style is different too. But she is so closely connected to silhouette film, that I had to think of her immediately. I personally did not enjoy this film here too much as it was too experimental for my taste. It wasn't clear at all what was happening. As an exception, intertitles may have hurt the film even more as they would have had a negative impact on the fast flow. Thumbs down from me.
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It's a silhouette movie that's very different from the usual abstraction we see from Oskar Fischinger. We see two guys at the start of the film in a tavern sat across the table from one another chucking down the drinks. Anyway it's not just them that gets drunk, reality gets drunk! It really is the forerunner of the Svankmajer movie Dimensions of Dialogue. The two characters start malforming and lunging at one another. With almost unbearable creativity the viewer will see emanations sproiling forth from the walls or characters, ephemeral, delicate, almost unseeable frondlike things, and sometimes characters turn into kind of Malevich or Kandinsky type geometry in the blink of an eye. The tavern belches the two gents out and the ground starts fighting them, one of the guys starts falling off a volcano, and at the bottom of the volcano there is no ground so he falls through thin air. Heads sprout spikes and indescribable projections so rapidly you can't believe it. The backdrops (Fischinger loves the idea of depth) are really delicately done in white, so that you hardly notice them, but they are very beautiful.Hey, I wonder what it's like to be in a room that suddenly turns into gloop, and collapses around me and then vomits me up. Well, now I know! This film makes Eraserhead look positively normal and was made in... nineteen twenty seven. This is still ahead of the times. The ending is suitably abrupt and bizarre the guy lies on his bed which then gets up and walks out of the dissolving house, the legs grow into massive stalks and it marches off into dissolution and oblivion.
SPIRITUAL CONSTRUCTIONS is a pure delight to watch. Whimsical and yet somewhat deranged silhouettes of anamorphic men twist and transform themselves in a world where nothing moves or acts as one should, would or could expect.One of Oskar Fischinger's earliest films, Seelische Konstruktionen (as it is known in German), clearly points the way to the masterpieces of musically-blended experimental animation he would conceive in the decades to come. The sense of masterful timing and rhythm, the easy and natural -- though patently Fischinger-esque -- character traits of the subjects, and the smooth precision of both line and movement are all present already. Unique is the black-silhouetted, semi-cartoon characters (not nearly as rigidly self-contained as Lotte Reiniger's cut-out forms) which seem to adhere to no physical limitations whatsoever. Morphing into shapes, structures, objects, patterns, and even one another, as though they were made of pure mercury and set to music. As for the "story", it's rather non-sensical, and certainly silly, but also has a slightly dark and devious tinge to it as well; men becoming monsters, uncontrollable shape-shifting and the constant, almost desperate movement. And all is beautifully married to a piece of frolicking classical music, so trademark Fischinger as well. Much less abstract than most of his later work, but so rewarding to watch for it's differences and playful unfolding.9/10. Made me smile, both on the inside and out!
I live in San Diego and we have a cable access channel that broadcasts different artistic clips of all kinds, and they just broadcasted this amazing short. It is an animation piece, about as far as I can tell, about a man in hell, or if not hell, just wallowing in some serious anguish. Surprisingly surreal and nightmarish imagery, blended with an effective use of classical music also make this very creepy flick one to look out for.