维京·埃格琳，《对角线交响乐》

　　维京·埃格琳1880年10月21日生于瑞典隆德，父亲是德裔移民，母亲是瑞典人。1923年，他在UFA动画制片厂开始创作无声黑白电影《对角线交响曲》。此片于1924年完成，并于一年后的5月3日向公众首映。当时是作为“绝对电影”日场放映的一部分。

　　埃格琳唯一幸存的电影《对角线交响乐》展现出的是黑色背景下的白色条纹形状。我们看到的有圆圈、线条、三角形还有竖琴形状。《对角线交响乐》被看做是当时颇具结构主义特点的抽象画作，同时也是一场视觉交响盛宴。如同鲁特曼的作品，这也是形状和节奏的戏剧性的相互作用。同时，这部作品，和许多其他同时代先锋作品一样，也有意设定一个高深莫测的水准，从而避开对作品任何简单的分类或者固定的解读。埃格琳和他的同行们在抽象和绝对电影上的用心被理解成为对纯粹的追求。汉斯·谢格尔和恩斯特·施密特称《对角线交响曲》为“最复杂且具美学价值的早期抽象电影”。

　　Viking Eggeling was born on 21 October 1880 in Lund, Sweden, the son of a German emigrant father and Swedish mother. In 1923 in the Universum Film (UFA) animation studios, he began working on a silent black-and-white film, DIAGONAL-SYMPHONIE, which was completed in 1924 and publicly screened on 3 May 1925 as part of the ABSOLUTE FILM matinee.

　　His only surviving film, DIAGONAL-SYMPHONIE, thrives on the play of white, mostly striped shapes on a black ground. What we see are circles, lines, triangles and harplike shapes. DIAGONAL­ SYMPHONIE is to be viewed as a kind of Constructivist abstract painting in time, but also as a visual symphony. As in Ruttmann’s work, it is about the dramatic interplay of shapes and patterns, but is also intended – as in the works of many of his avant-garde contemporaries – to develop a mystical level that would elude any simple classification or fixed interpretation. His and others’ work on abstract or absolute film was to be understood as a search for purity. Hans Scheugl and Ernst Schmidt Jr. call DIAGONAL-SYMPHONIE the “most complex and aesthetically beautiful of the early abstract films”.