Study No. 8: Shapes That Actually Dance

Is it worth your time?

If you like things that feel like a fever dream without the headache, sure. It’s perfect for people who get tired of plots and just want to look at something pretty for a few minutes. If you need a story to stay awake, you’ll probably find this boring as watching paint dry.

Oskar Fischinger really didn't care about making things easy for the viewer here. It’s just shapes. Circles, lines, and blobs moving around like they’re having a rave in 1931.

I found myself zoning out about halfway through, but in a good way. You don’t need to analyze this. You just sort of let it happen to your eyes. It reminded me a bit of the chaos in Noisy Neighbors, but instead of people screaming, it’s just triangles bumping into each other.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Study No. 8 (1931) through its definitive frames.

The timing is actually kind of spooky. Everything hits the beat, even though there’s no sound track attached to the version I saw. You can feel the music that isn't there.

Oddly specific things I noticed:

• The way the circles expand feels like it should be illegal.
• The contrast is so sharp it makes my monitor look like it needs a cleaning.
• Some of the frames look like they were drawn by someone who hadn't slept in three days.

Honestly, it’s a nice break from the standard fare like The Dawn Patrol. Sometimes you don't want to see someone get shot or fall in love. Sometimes you just want to see a square turn into a circle for no reason at all.

It’s not a masterpiece that will change your life. It’s just a weird little flicker of imagination that somehow survived for decades. I think that's enough. 🌀