Hans Richter

Directing

Hans Richter

Born — Died

1888-04-06 — 1976-02-01

Place of birth

Berlin, Germany

Known for

Directing

Credits

51 titles

Richter's first contacts with modern art were in 1912 through the "Blaue Reiter" and in 1913 through the "Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon" gallery "Der Strum", in Berlin. In 1914 he was influenced by cubism. He contributed to the periodical Die Aktion in Berlin. His first exhibition was in Munich in 1916, and Die Aktion published as a special edition about him. In the same year he was wounded and discharged from the army and went to Zürich and joined the Dada movement. Richter believed that the artist's duty was to be actively political, opposing war and supporting the revolution. His first abstract works were made in 1917. In 1918, he befriended Viking Eggeling, and the two experimented toget…

Known for

No artwork available
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

German Film Award

1951

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches poster
7.3

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

1968

Dadascope poster
7.7

Free-associative images are juxtaposed with disorienting poetry in Richter's late work. The film is visual dynamite: Upside-down and reversed footage, play with shadows and light, billiards and dice and balloons-- suggestive and surreal images. Tenets of Dada writing, such as games of chance, punnery, wordplay and loud nonsense noise are foist upon the viewer as Dada poems are read / performed by their orignal authors.

Dadascope

1962

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life poster
8.4

A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

1986

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements poster
6.2

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements is an American experimental film directed by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Cocteau. Described by Richter as "part Freud, part Lewis Carroll" and filmed partially on the lawn of Duchamp's summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements

1957

Film credits

1960s · 3 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Dadascope poster
7.7

Free-associative images are juxtaposed with disorienting poetry in Richter's late work. The film is visual dynamite: Upside-down and reversed footage, play with shadows and light, billiards and dice and balloons-- suggestive and surreal images. Tenets of Dada writing, such as games of chance, punnery, wordplay and loud nonsense noise are foist upon the viewer as Dada poems are read / performed by their orignal authors.

Dadascope

1962

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

Race Symphony poster
6.2

In Race Symphony (1928), Richter documents and celebrates a typical day at the German races, where a sophisticated people turn up in droves to gape, gasp, place a bet, and celebrate a well-deserved win.

Race Symphony

1928

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements poster
6.2

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements is an American experimental film directed by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Cocteau. Described by Richter as "part Freud, part Lewis Carroll" and filmed partially on the lawn of Duchamp's summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements

1957

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements poster
6.2

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements is an American experimental film directed by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Cocteau. Described by Richter as "part Freud, part Lewis Carroll" and filmed partially on the lawn of Duchamp's summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements

1957

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958

Passionate Pastime poster
NR

Hans Richter's documentary on the game of chess. Narrated by Vincent Price. Outlines the history of chess from ancient times to the present and traces its origins in India, China, and Persia. Prints, painting, illuminated manuscripts, live photography and rare chess pieces are shown as well as chess figures designed after Picasso and Braque.

Passionate Pastime

1958

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Ghosts Before Breakfast poster
6.8

Hans Richter, noted for his abstract shorts, has everyday objects rebelling against their daily routine.

Ghosts Before Breakfast

1928

Dreams That Money Can Buy poster
6.0

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.

Dreams That Money Can Buy

1947

Dreams That Money Can Buy poster
6.0

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.

Dreams That Money Can Buy

1947

Two Pence Magic poster
5.7

Two Penny Magic (Zweigroschenzauber) starting off with a little magic trick. It then presents an array of images from swimmers, bicyclers, murderers, airplanes in flight, boxers, lovers, runners, becoming in the end a collection of images in a magazine.

Two Pence Magic

1929

Two Pence Magic poster
5.7

Two Penny Magic (Zweigroschenzauber) starting off with a little magic trick. It then presents an array of images from swimmers, bicyclers, murderers, airplanes in flight, boxers, lovers, runners, becoming in the end a collection of images in a magazine.

Two Pence Magic

1929

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

No artwork available
6.4

Inflation (1928) is an experimental silent film at eight minutes which is sometimes categorized as a documentary. By now Richter is well beyond playing with light & shadow. Inflation explores the subject of money through photographs & with with stop motion animation techniques, adding faces of people impoverished & enriched by the unpredictability of finance. It functions almost as a political cartoon in motion, building to a chaotic & catastrophic climax.

Inflation

1928

No artwork available
9.0

Pontresina, Switzerland, at the beginning of the 20th century. A ski jumping competition is about to take place.

The Champion of Pontresina

1934

Every Day poster
6.8

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

Every Day

1929

Every Day poster
6.8

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

Every Day

1929

Everything Turns, Everything Revolves poster
5.9

A day at the carnival — sensational tent shows where miracles can be seen for the price of admission, boisterous noise of crowds and barkers, shrill and gaudy circus music, the violence of the street ten-fold. This is the substance of Everything Turns, Richter’s first sound film. At its premier at Baden-Baden Richter got into a fight with two Nazi officials who disliked the film's ‘modernism.’ Yet in 1936 it was awarded first prize for artistic merit by the Nazis, with Richter’s name suppressed from the credits. He had long since left Germany.

Everything Turns, Everything Revolves

1929

Everything Turns, Everything Revolves poster
5.9

A day at the carnival — sensational tent shows where miracles can be seen for the price of admission, boisterous noise of crowds and barkers, shrill and gaudy circus music, the violence of the street ten-fold. This is the substance of Everything Turns, Richter’s first sound film. At its premier at Baden-Baden Richter got into a fight with two Nazi officials who disliked the film's ‘modernism.’ Yet in 1936 it was awarded first prize for artistic merit by the Nazis, with Richter’s name suppressed from the credits. He had long since left Germany.

Everything Turns, Everything Revolves

1929

From the Circus to the Moon poster
NR

American sculptor, Alexander Calder, creates around the workshop. The film features several of his kinetic sculptures-- Wild moving figurines that spin, undulate and perform circus acts. The film ends on a hanging moon mobile, completing our wacky trip.

From the Circus to the Moon

1963

Rhythm 23 poster
5.7

We watch white shapes dancing on black background, which changes when the white shape fills up the screen completely, and black lines and figures bounce around on the now white background.

Rhythm 23

1923

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Die Husaren kommen

1955

Film Study poster
5.8

Entertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.

Film Study

1926

Film Study poster
5.8

Entertaining Dadaist experimental short, similar to Man Ray's work, full of shifting geometric shapes, stock footage of seagulls, flying eyeballs, and glaring floating heads.

Film Study

1926

No artwork available
NR

New architecture and new design, houses and apartments built according to modernist and utilitarian principles.

Neues Leben

1930

No artwork available
NR

New architecture and new design, houses and apartments built according to modernist and utilitarian principles.

Neues Leben

1930

No artwork available
NR

Made for the Zurich National Exhibition in 1939, Die Börse als Barometer der Wirtschaftslage charts the increase of stock exchanges in the history of economic development.

The Stock Exchange as a Barometer of the Economic Situation

1939

Hans Richter Early Works poster
NR

SYNOPSIS: 8 films by Hans Richter. Richter's position in the art world was unique. As one of the earliest exponents of Dada, he was also one of the first to recognize the new possibilities cinematography offered the artist. He participated in the first avant-garde film movement alongside Léger, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Cocteau and Dali, and later in New York his teachings would influence many of the 'New American Cinema' filmmakers.

Hans Richter Early Works

2008

Rhythm 21 poster
5.6

Abstract animated short film. Grey and white squares change size and shape on a black background.

Rhythm 21

1921

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Hallo Everybody

1933

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Hallo Everybody

1933

The New Apartment poster
7.0

A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB), Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.

The New Apartment

1930

The New Apartment poster
7.0

A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB), Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.

The New Apartment

1930

No artwork available
8.0

Commissioned by Philips, Europa Radio celebrates the company’s experimental PCJJ shortwave radio station in Eindhoven that went on air in 1927 and broadcasted to Europe as well as the rest of the world in various languages. Hans Richter’s film covers one day from morning to night, showing the range and scope of the daily radio programs – from stock market news and sports events to live concerts and a speech by Albert Einstein.

Europa Radio

1931

No artwork available
10.0

Directed by Hans Richter.

Metall

1933