Light Rhythms (1930) - Honestly, it's just paper and flashlights

You should probably watch Light Rhythms if you have five minutes to kill and you don't mind feeling a little bit confused by some paper. If you’re the kind of person who needs a plot or a main character to care about, you are going to hate this. It’s basically just a bunch of shadows hanging out on some curved cardstock.

Honestly, it’s refreshing to see something this old that isn't trying to tell me a moral story about a husband being bad. It’s way different than something like Lend Me Your Husband. This is just shapes.

Francis Bruguière and Oswell Blakeston basically just played with a flashlight and some scissors back in 1930. The movie starts with these paper cut-outs that look like abstract hills or maybe the inside of a very clean cave. Then the light starts to move.

The lights are just small spots at first. They crawl over the paper like little bugs. It’s actually kind of cute until the piano starts pounding away. The music is really fast.

I noticed that the way the light hits the curves makes the paper look like it's made of metal. The prompt says it has a mechanical mood, and I totally get that. It feels like you’re looking at the inside of a clock that’s made out of construction paper.

There is this one specific moment where a spot of light opens and closes. It looks like a blinking eye. Or maybe a mouth that’s trying to breathe. It’s a bit creepy if you stare at it too long.

Shadows start to take over about halfway through. The screen gets really dark, and you can barely see the shapes anymore. I kept squinting at my monitor thinking my brightness was down, but no, that’s just the movie. It’s very moody.

It’s not as funny as The Gold Rush, obviously. There are no jokes here. Just geometry.

I wonder if they used a real piano or if it’s a recording of a recording. It sounds a bit tinny, which actually fits the weird vibe. It makes the whole thing feel like it’s vibrating.

Some of the shots linger for a long time. Like, the camera just stares at a curve of paper for ten seconds. You start to see things in the paper that probably aren't there, like faces or landscapes.

Then the opening images come back at the end. It’s a loop. It’s like the movie forgot it already showed us that, or maybe it’s being artistic.

I think I saw a fingerprint on one of the paper edges for a split second. It’s nice to know humans actually touched this stuff. It makes it feel less like a computer generated thing and more like a craft project.

If you like La perle, you might dig the surreal feeling of this one. But honestly, it’s just five minutes long. Just watch it while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew.

Didja notice?

• The piano player sounds like they’ve had way too much caffeine.
• That one shadow that looks like a giant thumb.
• How the light spots sometimes move perfectly with the beat.
• The paper looks suspiciously like it was cut with kitchen scissors.
• The way the whole thing just ends without saying goodbye.

It’s a weird little trip. It’s not 'important' in the way people say old movies are, but it’s interesting to look at. Sometimes that’s enough for a Tuesday afternoon.