Walther Ruttman
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Filmography
Biography:
In order to understand Walter Ruttman as an artist it is helpful to have some knowledge of the life he led prior to his premier in 1921. Ruttmann was born on December 28, 1887 in Frankfort, Germany. He showed an interest in music early in his life, studying the cello starting at age twelve. In 1906, Ruttmann went to Zurich to study architecture, but this did not appeal to him and he soon gave up this training. In 1909, Ruttmann went to the Academyof Fine Art in Munich, where he studied painting under professor Angelo Jank. During this time Ruttmann was also acquainted personally with modern artists Klee and Feininger, and continued his study of music in addition to his study of painting. In 1914 World War I disrupted the lives of millions of people world wide, and Ruttmann was no exception.

He served as a lieutenant in the German army durring the war, and when the war ended in 1918 he became increasingly dissatisfied with the medium of painting. The main problem Ruttmann saw in the medium was its inherently static nature. A painter could attempt to capture some sense of motion in his paintings, but the paintings were, in the end, fixed in place forever. We are told that Ruttmann made a comment, shortly after the end of the war, to the effect that it made no sense to continue painting, unless the paintings could be set in motion(Starr). In 1921, in Frankfort, Germany, he realized this desire with the release of his first abstract film, and indeed the first abstract film the world had ever seen: Lichtspiel Opus I. As is evident from its title, the film combined the separate art forms of painting and music into one work. The film featured moving patterns of light set to a custom score, written specially for Lichtspiel Opus I by Max Butting. The film was a great success, making a lasting impression on people such as Bernhard Diebold, film reviewer for the Frankfurter Zeitung, and Oskar Fischinger, future avant-garde filmmaker in his own right. Ruttmann went on to produce three more completely abstract films, Opus II, Opus III, and Opus IV, which were all well recieved at the time.

Later in his life Ruttmann went on to participate in more traditional film styles, collaberating with Lotte Reiniger, providing effects and backgrounds for her silhouette film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. In 1927 Ruttmann released what is perhaps his most famous work, the documentary Berlin, Symphony of a Great City, for which he recieved great acclaim. The doucmentary opened with a short abstract animated sequence, so we can presume that Ruttmann never lost his desire to produce paintings in motion. The methods Ruttmann used to create Lichtspiel Opus I were never adecquately recorded, so we cannot be sure exactly how the films were made. Hans Richter once suggested that Ruttmann employed plastic forms turning on sticks, while "Lotte Reiniger has recalled that Ruttmann painted the films 'on a very small glass plate.'"(Starr) In any case, we do know that the film for Lichtspiel Opus I was shot in black and white, and was later hand-tinted by Ruttmann himself to add the color. This substantial time involved in hand-painting the color onto each frame of film accounts for the reason why much of Lichtspiel Opus I consists of simply colored forms on single-colored backgrounds.
By William Durley
The Harmony of Sound and Light