Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast) is a 1928 short film by the German-born film-experimenter, activist, avant-gardist, graphic artist, painter and (one of the) Dada-movement heads, Hans Richter. Ghosts is an enchanting, psychedelic mind-bender that uses both stop-motion animation and live action. It is steeped in surrealism. And naturally as the surrealism emerged from the wake of the Dadist movement. The first link below has no sound, however is not the complete version of the film. It is authentically the way the film has been preserved for today, as the original, with sound, was taken and destroyed by the Natzis who deemed it "degenerate art". There is something even more haunting, seductive and intriguing about watching something with such pronounced movements within the frames in silence. As it unfolda you see that the relationship between what your eyes see and what you hear is submerged in mind trickery; as you can here all of the clicks, tinkering, whirling and thumping as the frames advance. The embedded version is the full version with a soundtrack one seemingly aptly applied. I suggest turning the volume down first to watch, and then watching it with the volume up. ex ex oh ex.
