Animation Theatre: Lotte Reiniger 2 nd June 1899- 19 th June 1981Fig. 1 Lotte Reiniger Lotte Reiniger was a revolutionary figure in the world of animation in that she brought the art of shadow puppetry further in storytelling through filmmaking. Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director who is hi ghly regarded as strongly embodying the art stylisation of the Avant Garde because of how independent and different her works were as a film direction. It was as a child that Reiniger became intrigued by the Chinese art of shadow puppetry and not much later on that film and cinema became a major love of hers. She was especially influenced by Paul Wegener who after much work noticed her and enlisted Reiniger to produced title cards for his films, suitably highly elaborate silhouette formations. It was the succ ess of Wegener and Reiniger’s work on ‘The Pied Piper of Hamlin’ that kicked off Reiniger’s career of animation. Reiniger’s most well-known piece of work is probably her 1926, ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’which is mistakenly forgotten to be the first an imated feature length film beating Walt Disney to it more than a decade earlier. It is hard to remember that every single element of this feature is formed of delicate paper cut outs that were all done by hand alone because the action on screen unfolds so smoothly and realistically, not looking like hand craft that we do not stop to question and think about how it c ame about. This alone just shows how talented R einiger was with the craft of paper cutting especially when she is the main worker behind each of her works something teacher William Mortiz has praised her for. ‘Lotte Reiniger herself is the prime genius behind all of her films. She had an astonishing facility with cutting- holding the scissors still in herright hand, and manipulating the paper at lightning speed with her left hand so that the cutalways went in the right direction. ’(Mortiz: 1996)
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Lotte Reiniger was a revolutionary figure in the world of animation in that she brought the
art of shadow puppetry further in storytelling through filmmaking. Reiniger was a German silhouette
animator and film director who is highly regarded as strongly embodying the art stylisation of the
Avant Garde because of how independent and different her works were as a film direction.
It was as a child that Reiniger became intrigued by the Chinese art of shadow puppetry and
not much later on that film and cinema became a major love of hers. She was especially influenced
by Paul Wegener who after much work noticed her and enlisted Reiniger to produced title cards for
his films, suitably highly elaborate silhouette formations. It was the success of Wegener and
Reiniger’s work on ‘The Pied Piper of Hamlin’ that kicked off Reiniger’s career of animation.
Reiniger’s most well-known piece of work is probably her 1926, ‘ The Adventures of Prince
Achmed ’ which is mistakenly forgotten to be the first animated feature length film beating Walt
Disney to it more than a decade earlier. It is hard to remember that every single element of this
feature is formed of delicate paper cut outs that were all done by hand alone because the action onscreen unfolds so smoothly and realistically, not looking like hand craft that we do not stop to
question and think about how it came about. This alone just shows how talented Reiniger was with
the craft of paper cutting especially when she is the main worker behind each of her works
something teacher William Mortiz has praised her for. ‘ Lotte Reiniger herself is the prime genius
behind all of her films. She had an astonishing facility with cutting- holding the scissors still in her
right hand, and manipulating the paper at lightning speed with her left hand so that the cut
always went in the right direction.’ (Mortiz: 1996)
The art of the fairy-tale is another prominent feature of Reiniger’s work; it isn’t just that the
fairy-tale genre was where her talents were at work storytelling wise. It is also the style and
experience of her labour that brings across the fairy-tale vibe. When we think of fairy-tales wenormally associate them with elegance, decorative feature, delicacy and fantasy but also simplicity.
Reiniger’s work is highly denotative of these qualities; let’s take her 1922 ‘Cinderella’ for instance.
Yes the story is all fairy-tale but Reiniger’s technique further evokes this genre and theme, the
silhouettes of these characters are highly elegant just look at the prince with his long slim legs, the
silhouettes also act to stop unnecessary detail detracting from the story and animation. Reiniger has
defined each character through highly contrasting cut outs, the tall slim prince, the puffy dress of
Cinderella and the narrow but pointier cuttings of the ugly sisters and this is all we need to
effectively understand the film, simple yet expressive character design. It is however, the talent of
Reiniger which takes this simplicity but also makes it delicate and decorative. We are presented with
blocks of black broken up by miniature cuts to simulate more characteristics such as Cinderella’s
princess like dress and the distasteful clothing of the sisters, she then goes on to move these figures
through stop motion and the delicacy and dreamlike nature of the fairy-tale is fully conjured. ‘ The
delicacy and fantasy of fairy-tales suited her intricate, imaginative technique, and they made up