Allegretto

My first film from director Oskar Fischinger {though he did work on Lang's 'Frau im Mond (1929)'} is, I hear, characteristic of his career in film: abstract animation synchronised to a musical rhythm. 'Allegretto (1936),' his first project following his arrival in Hollywood, was originally commissioned as a segment of Paramount's 'The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936),' but the production was later changed from Technicolor (or Gasparcolor) to black-and-white, and only a butchered version of Fischinger's film found its way into the final release. In any case, to deprive the animation of its colours is to remove most of its charm, something akin to watching 'Fantasia (1940)' in greyscale. Fischinger uses the movement of geometric shapes to visually represent music melodies, in this case Ralph Rainger's "Radio Dynamics," but it's the breathtakingly vivid colours that most strongly capture the pulsating energy of the jazz tune.

Something about Fischinger's animation struck me as naggingly-familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The entire film somehow resembles the sort of euphoria that a film character experiences when they step into a mighty Las Vegas casino, entering a world where suddenly everything seems possible {I'm not exactly sure why I specifically envisioned a casino – maybe it was the vibrant choice of colours, the floating diamond shapes, or the fact that I watched 'The Shanghai Gesture (1941)' just last night}. The pulsating geometry also reminded me of the animation sequence in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo (1958).' Afterall, I suppose that making random subjective associations is exactly what abstract cinema is all about. 'Allegretto' also has the benefit of a swinging jazz track that is massively enjoyable even on its own, but Fischinger adds colour, movement, and brings the music to life.

I'm afraid I know nothing about Fischinger, although his name often crops up as a pioneer of abstract animation, so I can only enjoy this short as a sensual experience, but what a sensual experience. The title is a musical expression (meaning to play a piece quite quickly), and the film visualises a piece of big band jazz by Ralph Rainger. Beginning with ordered concentric circles, ALLEGRETTO follows the music with elaborate firework-like patterns exploding the screen, specifically diamonds, amid a riot of colour. The music, probably conservative enough on its own, begins to sound urgent and hysterical with this visual barrage, which, while highly ordered and geometric, seems violently unstable. I am sure there are deep aesthetic and philosophical reasons for this, but as an exercise in colour and line, it is a thrilling treat.

In the last several months, I have seen FREE RADICALS, A COLOUR BOX, HARPYA and now ALLEGRETTO--all animated shorts that have won many awards and are, in a way, all exactly alike. All feature music (often classical or swing) and various colors and shapes bounce across the screen in perfect rhythm to the music. While all of these are well done, they also are very repetitive and I frankly am going to avoid these types of films in the future--even though I usually have a high tolerance for art films.

Now in ALLEGRETTO's defense, I should point out that it did come before two of the movies lists. However, in 1935, A COLOUR BOX appeared and was probably the best of these films. With ALLEGRETTO coming out only a year later, it does lack originality.

My advice is that if you haven't seen any of these films, by all means try ALLEGRETTO. Just understand that a human being can't live on a steady diet of these sort of pictures.

I like this music because it's perfect for any dreams in TV Show or Movies