Educational Media Reviews Online

There are two primary videotapes here, one the restored 1926 black and white (with color backgrounds) silhouette/animated film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, based on stories from The Arabian Nights, and the other a documentary on the life and work of the German film maker Lotte Reiniger, the maker of The Adventures of Prince Achmed and other early animated silhouette films. Sandwiched in-between the animated film and the documentary is a short advertising trailer done in the silhouette animation technique for Nivea skin cream in 1921 by Reiniger.

Although Lotte Reiniger was a pioneer in silhouette animation and hailed by some as the first maker of animated film anywhere, she is hardly known by the general public. Indeed, she is little known among film makers. Reiniger and her entrepreneurial husband Carl Koch flourished in the heady intellectual and artistic circles of 1920’s Berlin. Koch set up Reiniger’s first animation studio; he also worked with theatrical luminaries like Bertolt Brecht and feature film makers like Jean Renoir. Reiniger and Koch worked and lived in Paris and Rome as well as Berlin. They fled to Rome when the Nazis made life difficult for artists in Germany, but returned in 1943 owing to family obligations: it became known to them that Reiniger’s elderly mother was facing starvation. They immigrated to England in 1948, settling in Barnet, North London.

Blessed by generous patrons, first the German banker Louis Hagen, then by a wealthy benefactor in London, Reiniger and Koch worked steadily until their deaths. Koch predeceased his wife, and Lotte Reiniger spent her last years living with the minister who became executor of her estate in Tubingen, Germany. Katja Raganelli’s documentary is comprehensive, beautifully shot in various actual locations, and smoothly takes the viewer into the lives of this clever and talented German couple and their creative, artistic milieu. The film moves swiftly and never drags; it’s intelligently put together and Reiniger emerges as a vivid personality.

Silhouette film: what is it? Basically, it’s a painstaking process in which figures and objects are cut out of black cardboard and set and moved against a colored (tinted) background. The figures, Prince Achmed, his beloved Princess Peri Banu, the evil African Sorcerer, the Witch, Aladdin, the Caliph, Achmed’s sister Princess Dinarzade, sprites, demons, winged creatures, and the like, are hinged at the joints so that a great variety of movement--much of it sinuous--is possible. (There is a marked similarity to the great shadow puppets of Indonesia in form and movement.)

With extraordinary deftness, Reiniger cut out all of these figures by hand using small scissors. She also cut eyes into these creatures, and one would swear they show expression. The objects and sets are wondrously detailed, filigreed and complicated, with a life of their own. Palaces, pleasure gardens, exotic island paradises, parades of elephants, et cetera, are beautifully designed. Each individual movement of each character was shot, frame-by-frame, and developed into a film of fluid motion and action. If you have never seen a silhouette animation before, this will be a happy surprise. Much is possible with this method of telling a story.

The story itself is taken from that wonderful series of adventures, The Arabian Nights. Prince Achmed is the son and heir of the Caliph. The evil African Sorcerer, coveting Achmed’s sister Princess Dinarzade, tricks Achmed into mounting a magic horse that takes him far away from home. Thus Prince Achmed’s adventures begin! His first stop is the island paradise of Wak-Wak, ruled over by Princess Peri Banu, with whom he falls in love. The Sorcerer thwarts this romance and Achmed must enlist the help of a ferocious Witch and later that of Aladdin and his magic lamp. Setback upon setback ensues before all is resolved happily. (Think Lord of the Rings for a comparison of non-stop good-versus-evil action.) There’s a beautiful, evocative musical score by Wolfgang Zeller

Reiniger’s reputation as an animated film pioneer is guaranteed and enhanced by this lovingly-restored animated movie. It’s past time she was rescued from obscurity! Though Europeans—especially the Germans and the English--might know of her, the rest of the world does not. The restoration was undertaken by the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt and the tinting and printing by L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. Lotte Reiniger had four animation assistants: Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, Walter Turck and Alexander Kardan. Every student of animated film history and technique should make it his/her business to track down and view this film. Film students in general should also have it brought to their attention. Early film making was a global process, with the involvement of French and other European artists; animation did not have its beginnings in the United States, despite the prominence of Walt Disney and the worldwide popularity of Mickey Mouse. There are, alas, no ReinigerWorld or ReinigerLand theme parks.

Having said that, is The Adventures of Prince Achmed a watchable film for other than those students of film technique and history? Yes and no. It’s a long movie, at 65 minutes, and silhouette is an unusual method. It can be tiring on the eyes. It is also not for young children—both because of the silhouette technique and because it’s sometimes scary. There are German subtitles occasionally, but they are brief and few and they are translated into English. Parts of it could be fine for children, but not the entire film. It demands too much from the young, general viewer.

The documentary is fascinating and could be shown on its own, as it contains several clips from …Prince Achmed. In fact, showing the documentary before showing the animated movie might be the better way for one to view it. This fabulous film is a valuable addition to collections everywhere, whether university film archives or public library collections.