Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Jixby Phillips I was waiting for it to get interesting. It never did. It's lines, man. They appear and disappear and stuff. Big deal. There was already a lot of innovation in the film and animation world at this point in history. I don't get what's impressive about these particular lines. Maybe there's some sort of context missing here. But Jeez Louise... I was waiting for this thing to start and then just wanted it to end. Speaking of lines, did you know that IMDb requires a minimum of ten lines in a review? If the text dialog box I'm typing into is any indication, then I have three more to go after the break, which actually happened between the words "after" and "the" just now. Of course, by the time this review goes to press it'll be formatted differently. Of course, your browser's text setting will definitely come into play here.

MartinHafer While this film practically defies description and is practically impossible to review, I decided to take this on simply because the opening made me laugh. There is a blurb that appears on the screen and indicates that this film by Viking Eggeling is simply a work of genius!! The summary above is taken from this self-congratulatory praise!! Never have a seen a film so quick to pat itself on the back!!The entire silent film consists of art deco-style black & white shapes appearing and moving about--all with diagonals or with diagonals superimposed on it. Set to music this might have been mesmerizing, but as a silent it lacks a lot. I won't give it a score but would beg to differ that it is the best abstract yet conceived (at least by 1924)--something better must surely exist--something worth seeing to the average Joe.

mrdonleone Diagonale Symphonie, what to expect? some strange movie, and indeed, it turned out to be a very strange light effects movie, where you keep wondering what you are looking at. is it a piano? is it a glass? is it a chicken? is it a wig? it's really hard to say, because the little differences with each picture of light you get to see, really change the global frame you get to see. is it the sun? is it a knife? actually, it's not quite that funny, because as a viewer, I want to know what I'm looking at. maybe the title means something... yes, it could be instruments. that would explain a lot. instruments, shown by light, maybe it means standing in the spotlights, to be famous, perhaps this movie is about being famous.

tavm Found this rare experimental animated short by one Viking Eggeling on the Internet Archive site. It's basically a series of lines-either straight or curved-that form then retreat. Appear then disappear. Repeat again and again before disappearing for something new to form. And there seems to be some kind to rhythm to the whole thing as if some kind of music that no one can hear, since this short is completely silent, is orchestrating the entire thing. Maybe Chuck Jones saw this and was inspired to make his Oscar-winning The Dot and the Line. Maybe other abstract animators like Len Lye were inspired with their own versions of what is depicted here. Symphonie diagonale is certainly one of the earliest of the fascinating abstract animated designs ever put on film. Highly worth a look for anyone interested in this sort of thing. Update: 10/16/08-I saw another, possibly longer version, on the Europa Film Treasures site. This version has a score added by Aidje Tafial with a woman's voice electronically coming in occasionally and some bells. With these enhancements, I'm now upping the rating to 9.