Uit het rijk der kristallen

Summary

Uit het rijk der kristallen is one of the scientific films made ​​by Mol. In the film, the crystallization processes of various chemicals are shown. There are different versions of Uit het rijk der kristallen: the original silent film was given a soundtrack in the 1930s, and there is a colour version of the film which was made ​​using Dufay colour. A clip from the film, or other shots of identical crystallization processes, can be seen in Mol’s other films.

The film was not only screened at educational and scientific presentations, but also resonated within avant-garde circles. The film was screened at the first show presented by the Harlem branch of the Filmliga. This was followed by a screening at Amsterdam’s Filmliga, and at ‘Studio 28’ in Paris. There, the film was screened as a ‘triptyque’, with three projectors side by side. Uit het rijk der kristallen is one of the scientific films made ​​by Mol. In the film, the crystallization processes of various chemicals are shown. There are different versions of Uit het rijk der kristallen: the original silent film was given a soundtrack in the 1930s, and there is a colour version of the film which was made ​​using Dufay colour. A clip from the film, or other shots of identical crystallization processes, can be seen in Mol’s other films.

The film was not only screened at educational and scientific presentations, but also resonated within avant-garde circles. The film was screened at the first show presented by the Harlem branch of the Filmliga. This was followed by a screening at Amsterdam’s Filmliga, and at ‘Studio 28’ in Paris. There, the film was screened as a ‘triptyque’, with three projectors side by side.

On the occasion of the exhibition at the Amsterdam Filmliga, Menno ter Braak wrote: ‘It seems to us that his experiments in this time of transition are of particular interest to the League, because all renewal that the film will deliver from the rule of the Stars, primarily the simple principles of what is seen, by studying the movement detected by the camera eye [...] Everywhere that film breaks away from sensation and vaudeville platitudes, the effort is noticeable, first and foremost by determining the laws of motion and their applicability to the image plane’.