VIDEO: The Dadaist Films of Hans Richter

Flying hats, floating neckties, stacked guns — Hans Richter’s 1927 Dadaist film Ghosts Before Breakfast is a masterpiece of surreal cinema that still holds up nearly a century later. The film opens with a title card that says everything: “The Nazis destroyed the sound version of this film of ‘degenerate art’. It shows that even objects revolt against regimentation.” That they tried to erase it makes watching it feel like a small act of resistance.