Experimental animation, directed by Oskar Fischinger. Germany, 1930, 35mm, black & white, silent, 2 min. Originally synchronized to Electrola recording No. EG 1663. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

Experimental short film by Oskar Fischinger

Experimental short film by Oskar Fischinger. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

An abstract ballet set to "I've Never Seen a Smile Like Yours".

A short experimental film.

The black and white, live-action Swiss Trip, scored with Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto (like Motion Painting No. 1), is kind of a nature or travel film cut via noticeable (in-camera?) edits that give the impression the film is constantly blinking and foreshadow techniques Stan Brakhage would use in the '50s and '60s. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

An animated experimental film showing coloured circles moving to classical music, which only got past the 1934 censors billed as a commercial.

Experimental short film by Oskar Fischinger

Never-released early experiments, animation drawings and tests from Oskar Fishcinger.

Short animation experiment drawn by Oskar Fischinger

Fischinger's abstract designs accompanied by Gitta Alpar singing. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

In 1927, motivated by a longing for freedom, Fischinger set off on a walking trip from Munich to Berlin. Covering the distance in nearly four weeks, he captured the country’s hidden beauty. His voyage serves as a symbolical transition and underlines a belief that people are the same everywhere.

One of the first color films in Europe, made with the Gaspar Color process.

Short film preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

Motion Painting No. 1 is an animated short film from 1947 that highlights different motion painting techniques. It is considered a masterpiece in the realm of abstract animation and has been recognized by the National Film Registry.

An mutoscope motion picture installation commissioned for the 86th anniversary of the Guggenheim museum. Later preserved and turned into a short film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

A work of abstract animation

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.

An experimental short from Oskar Fischinger

The first Studies were synchronized with records (Fischinger made a total of 13 Studies all without sound). It was only with the introduction of sound, beginning with Study No 6 that the films did full justice to this musical principle. The play of the white lines, the arcs, and the upside-down U’s running hither and thither like ballet dancers was brought into perfect synchronization with the music, and thus the films offered an abstract illustration of the melodies. Study No 6 is certainly the best of his films in terms of forms. - Hans Scheugl and Ernst Schmidt, Jr. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001.