Hans Richter's 'Inflation': An Old, Jerky Look at Money

Alright, so Hans Richter’s Inflation, it’s not really for a casual Friday night watch. If you’re looking for a plot, or even characters, you’re gonna be *real* disappointed. This is one for the art school crowd, the film history buffs, or anyone who just appreciates a truly weird, old piece of experimental cinema. Everyone else? You'll probably be checking your watch.

What you get here is a bunch of photographs, mostly faces, all jiggling around in stop-motion. It’s like a really old, flickering flip-book brought to life. Richter, he’s trying to show how money, or the lack of it, really messes with people. How some get rich, some get poor, and it’s all kinda random and brutal. 💸

You see these faces. They change. One moment they’re stern, the next they’re almost grotesque, stretched out. It’s not smooth, not polished at all. **That’s the whole point, I think.** The jerky movements, they kinda *feel* like the instability Richter's talking about. Like the economy itself, really.

There’s this one sequence where a face just kind of *expands* then *shrinks*, over and over. It's unnerving. You can almost feel the pressure, the anxiety, behind those eyes. It’s a very simple trick, but it really sticks with you. Like the film is trying to say, 'Look at what this does to us.' 👀

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Inflation (1928) through its definitive frames.

It’s also really short, which honestly, is probably a good thing. You get the message, the vibe, and then it’s done. It doesn't overstay its welcome, which a lot of these older experimental shorts sometimes do.

You don't get dialogue, no big dramatic scenes. Just the raw *visual* impact of these manipulated photos. It’s a silent film that screams about economic turmoil without making a sound. Pretty clever, for 1928.

So, is it good? It’s *effective*. It makes you think. It's a snapshot of a very specific artistic idea, done with very limited tools. You can almost feel Richter just cutting and pasting, moving things frame by frame. **A real labor of love, or maybe frustration.**

It’s not a film to enjoy with popcorn. It's a film to ponder, maybe even dissect. If you like your cinema to challenge you, and you don’t mind a little visual roughness, then give Inflation a look. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the lack of talking. 😉