Makers: Francis Bruguière. Assisted by Oswell Blakeston
Original format: 35mm silent film 1.33:1
Original 1930 music composed by Jack Ellitt. Adapted by William Moritz and performed by Donald Sosin
Courtesy: Jack Ellitt, Roger and Shirley Horrocks

In the late 1920s, Francis Bruguière exhibited photographic works based on dramatically lit, cut, and folded paper shapes, some figurative, some abstract. Light Rhythms is a strictly abstract film that added new dimensions to these shapes: moving light sources, a scheme of superimpositions, and the elements of time and music. -David Curtis

Bruguière devoted himself to ceaseless experimentation in multiple exposure montage prints of persons and places, stylist modernist advertising imagery, abstract short films examining the play of light on cut paper forms, and solarized figure studies in the style of Man Ray. - Dr. David S. Shields

San Francisco photographer Francis Bruguière (1879-1945) came to London from New York City with one completed film Danse Macabre (1922) made with Dudley Murphy and one unfinished personal project The Way (1925). Bruguiére pioneered abstract lighting effects to evoke dramatic modes of expression. He also collaborated with Norman Bel Geddes on a "pseudomorphic film" that was abandoned. -David Curtis/Bruce Posner

Oswell Blakeston (1907-1985) was a painter, poet, novelist, and prolific columnist on "advanced cinema" for journals such as Close Up and Film Art. He collaborated with Francis Bruguière on Light Rhythms. In later life, he returned to painting and reviewing art exhibitions. Neither of Blakeston's other known films appears to have survived. -David Curtis

Jack Ellitt (1902-2001) was an Australian avant-garde composer who moved to England in 1928. Between 1929 and 1937 he collaborated with artist Len Lye on film soundtracks. He wrote and performed an improvisational piano score for Bruguiére's Light Rhythms. From 1930 onward, he directed documentary films and was a pioneer of electronic music. -Roger Horrocks