Light Rhythms (1931) watch online HD

This is just one of many strange films from the DVD collection "Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941" and it's from Disc 3. Apparently Francis Bruguière was an artist of the time known for cutting and folding paper to make abstract shapes--which you just have to see to appreciate. Oswell Blakeston, I believe, used lighting and a camera to give a sense of motion to the works. Since it was made in 1931 and was an art film, I assume it did not originally come with a musical score--which was included on the disc. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but art films aren't necessarily concerned with appealing to the masses--which will not occur with "Light and Rhythms". And, because it was not the least bit geared towards being a commercial film, it really defies rating here on IMDb. Unusual to say the least.

Watching this film, I was struck by the visual trick in which a given image appears to gain a completely different 3D profile as the light is aimed across it from a different direction; it's as if we're watching a scene appear from behind gauze on the stage, thanks to trick lighting. Since in this case all the images are on film, I don't know if it's an actual case of revealing new angles of a given set, or just a case of fading from one montage to another!

But it's a bit of a one-trick wonder, and a shot that's repeated often enough to lose its charm; I'm afraid I'm not really into the avant-garde, and I don't find enough here to hold my interest. Oswell Blakeston wrote in 1930 "In this film for the first time light is on its toes, dancing" -- but for me the effects are a rather limited set of changes that don't live up to the film's title.