2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki It is curious, how much our minds are wired to try to make sense out of the images we see: are the moving, dancing, art deco figures in this film combs? Caricatures of wings? A logo? And the oddly hypnotic, abstract images which appear at one minute? what of them? Are the images and figures presented mean to compliment each other, or stand independently? Or meant to simulate movement? Viking Eggeling's Symphonie diagonale is interesting, nonstop art deco images, good to just sit and watch the repetitive patterns shapes, like a blinking neon sign, and zone out to, and well drawn also.The print I saw had either been well restored, or just held up immaculately, because the film had contrast between its deep blacks and pure whites, as opposed to medium range greys that a lot of old silent films have.

MARIO GAUCI This is yet another film devoted to endless repetition of evolving shapes (like the recently-viewed OPUS 1 {1921} by Walther Ruttmann, RHYTMUS 21 {1921} by Hans Richter and ANEMIC CINEMA {1926} by Man Ray); bafflingly, it has found a place (albeit a deservedly lowly one) on a poll I have been checking out ranking the all-time top 3000 movies! There is little to say about such 'trivial' efforts, except that one is thankful for their brevity – while assuming that they were conceived in order to push the boundaries of film when the medium was still essentially in its infancy. As was the case with a few of the titles included on Kino's 2-Disc "Avant-Garde" collection, this is available online in several prints boasting a variety of lengths – often supported by newly-composed (and wildly inappropriate) electronic scores; needless to say, I opted to watch a copy of it that featured traditional accompaniment

tavm Found this rare experimental animated short by one Viking Eggeling on the Internet Archive site. It's basically a series of lines-either straight or curved-that form then retreat. Appear then disappear. Repeat again and again before disappearing for something new to form. And there seems to be some kind to rhythm to the whole thing as if some kind of music that no one can hear, since this short is completely silent, is orchestrating the entire thing. Maybe Chuck Jones saw this and was inspired to make his Oscar-winning The Dot and the Line. Maybe other abstract animators like Len Lye were inspired with their own versions of what is depicted here. Symphonie diagonale is certainly one of the earliest of the fascinating abstract animated designs ever put on film. Highly worth a look for anyone interested in this sort of thing. Update: 10/16/08-I saw another, possibly longer version, on the Europa Film Treasures site. This version has a score added by Aidje Tafial with a woman's voice electronically coming in occasionally and some bells. With these enhancements, I'm now upping the rating to 9.

Polaris_DiB This animation could arguably be held as a consummate creation of modern art expression. Viking Eggeling's short was created as an experiment in design, time, and rhythm, not too far removed from Hans Ricther's Rhythmus 21, but several times better and more interesting. What particularly appeals about this film is that, despite the fact that the forms and shapes are entirely abstract, this film is still rather fascinating to watch. It sort of pre-dates trance cinema in that sense, and could possibly considered a forerunner of such things as even Maya Deren's work in the 50s.--PolarisDiB