Rhythmus 21 - A2

Rhythmus 21 - Hans Richter 

Rhythmus 21 is a self-conscious meditation on the limits of the medium. In particular, it pushed the limits of early film and has no figurative representations like other conventional films, as there are neither people nor flowers, and no animals, or ships at sea. Instead, it plays with the optical effects of simple shapes such as rectangles. Richter’s creative, radical use of light, shadow, and shape was a markedly different experience for the 1910s and ’20s audiences accustomed to seeing newsreels, serials, and narrative films. 

Throughout the years, filmmakers have mostly been focusing on profit and creating a clear narrative. Before the creation of Rhythmus 21, many cinemas and theatres gained control over the production and distribution of films and started making audiences idolize the movie stars. Rhythmus 21 was a response to the control and dictatorship of large conglomerates, cinemas and producers of what is considered to be a film or what could be released to the public, as it is against the classical cinema conventions. 

The use of shapes, which are depictions of real things without being exact representations, made the audience focus more on the placement and movement, or on the shapes themselves. It combines black backgrounds with white shapes and lines that seem to grow and change, appearing now in the distance, now in the foreground. The rectangles here connote structure and construction. 

Even though the shapes do not have faces or expressions, Rhythmus 21 did try to express emotional content to the audience through the mutual interaction of forms moving in contrast and relation to one another. For instance, at the beginning of the film, some white boxes move to the sides like opening doors to a lift. Then, the movements of white squares and white rectangles against the deep black background start and the rest are open for interpretation.  

Richter explained that the true means of construction is the intensity and quantity of light and the task was to shape the nature of the light, in the sense of a comprehensive perceptibility. Therefore, the film communicates very authentically the relationships of tension and contrast in the light and mood: Black and white, order and chaos. These relationships consist of light and dark, small and large, slow and fast, horizontal and vertical, etc. 

Syncopated by an uneven rhythm, forms grow, break apart and are fused together in a variety of configurations. The constantly shifting forms render the spatial situation of the film ambivalent, an idea that is reinforced when Richter reverses the figure-background relationship by switching from positive to negative film. 

In modern days, media products also often use abstract shapes and lighting to construct and convey encoded messages to the audience. Designers use shapes to create mood, movement and depth. Shapes with straight lines and angles, such as square, rectangle and triangle, usually symbolise stability, structure and order. The element light also adds depth to the products and since humans have an instinct of following the light, the audience will pay attention to where the light is.