Allegretto

19361936
3m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

419

YOUR RATING

Animation

Short

Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

419

YOUR RATING

Director
- Oskar Fischinger

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Trivia
The original 1936 version of this film made by Oskar Fischinger for Paramount Studios is lost. The version that exists is a remake from 1943, made after Fischinger paid Paramount to buy back the rights to his material, using some of the original animation cels, with others repainted by Fischinger for the remake. The now-lost original film was shot in Technicolor but the remake used Gasparcolor because that was the process Fischinger could afford.

Alternate versions
Version prepared for Big Broadcast of 1937 is in black and white and has many visuals substituted for animated shapes.

Connections
Edited into International Festival of Animation (1977)

Soundtracks
Radio Dynamics
Music by Ralph Rainger

User reviews5

Review

Top review

9/10

Moving music.

I'm afraid I know nothing about Fischinger, although his name often crops up as a pioneer of abstract animation, so I can only enjoy this short as a sensual experience, but what a sensual experience. The title is a musical expression (meaning to play a piece quite quickly), and the film visualises a piece of big band jazz by Ralph Rainger. Beginning with ordered concentric circles, ALLEGRETTO follows the music with elaborate firework-like patterns exploding the screen, specifically diamonds, amid a riot of colour. The music, probably conservative enough on its own, begins to sound urgent and hysterical with this visual barrage, which, while highly ordered and geometric, seems violently unstable. I am sure there are deep aesthetic and philosophical reasons for this, but as an exercise in colour and line, it is a thrilling treat.

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