Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928)

Original title

Vormittagsspuk

Directed by

Hans Richter

Genre

silent film

Country

Weimar Republic

Runtime

6 min

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 63 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a Dadaist animated short from the 1920s. It shows random objects and everyday items moving on their own with stop motion. There is no clear story, just a series of strange and playful images.

experimentalabsurdplayfulwhimsicalsurrealfreneticnonsensicalavant-garde

What happens

Ghosts Before Breakfast (German: Vormittagsspuk) is a 1928 German dadaist animated short film directed by Hans Richter. It utilizes stop motion for some of its effects and live action for others. The film does not present a coherent narrative, and includes a number of seemingly arbitrary images. The original accompanying score composed by Paul Hindemith for a player piano is regarded as lost. New audio tracks have been created by artists such as The Real Tuesday Weld. British composer Ian Gardiner, who has written many scores for cinema and television, created a score for the film in 2006 (premiered by the Liverpool group Ensemble 10/10, directed by Clark Rundell). The UK ensemble Counterpoise (violin, trumpet, saxophone, piano) premiered American composer Jean Hasse's score in 2008, touring the UK - it can be seen on YouTube. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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