Directed by: Lotte
Reiniger/Carl Koch(Uncredited)
Written by: Lotte
Reiniger
Cinematography: Carl
Koch
Distributed by: Comenius-Film
GmbH/Milestone Films
Release date(s): July 1926 (France)
Running time: 65
minutes (at 24 frames/s)
Country: Weimar
Republic
Language: German
Historical Significance:
- First use of silhouette animation
- Oldest surviving animated feature film
Background/Animation Style/Production:
The
Adventures of Prince Achmed, transalated in German as Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, is a 1926 German animated
fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature
film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they
are considered lost. The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette
animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts
made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she
used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were
animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints
featured color tinting.
Several famous avant-garde
animators worked on this film with Lotte Reiniger. These included Walter
Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and Carl Koch.
Plot:
The story is based on elements
taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince
Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book.
With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic
horse, the title character reclaims the magic lamp and conquers the African
sorcerer. The culminating scene in the film is the battle between "die
Hexe" (the witch) and "der afrikanische Zauberer" (the African
sorcerer), in which those characters undergo fabulous transformations. All is
well in the end: Aladdin marries Dinarsade (Achmed's sister and daughter of the
Caliph); Achmed marries Pari Banu; the African sorcerer is defeated; and the
foursome return to the Caliph's kingdom.
Restoration:
No original German nitrate prints
of the film are known to still exist. While the original film featured color
tinting, prints available just prior to the restoration had all been in black
and white. Working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists
restored the film during 1998 and 1999 including reinstating the original
tinted image by using the Desmet method.
Score:
The original score was composed by
German composer Wolfgang Zeller in direct collaboration with the animation of
the film. Reiniger created photograms for the orchestras, which were common in
better theatres of the time, to follow along the filmic action.
The Silk Road Ensemble accompanied
the film with a live improvised performance on Western strings and instruments
such as the oud, ney and sheng in October 2006 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New
York, NY. The Silk Road Ensemble repeated the performance at the Avon Cinema in
Providence, RI, in February 2007.
The British film composer Geoff
Smith composed a new score for the film in 2008, which he performed live as an
accompaniment to screenings of the film.
An alternative score was written
and presented to the public December 16, 2009 by Indian composer and guitarist,
Rahul Roy (not to be confused with an actor of the same name). The authorized
screening was presented at Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts on that
date, with over fifty people in attendance.
Another alternative score was
conceived and performed by the British-Asian clarinettist and composer, Arun
Ghosh and featured Adriano Adewale, Shabaka Hutchings, Jenny Adejayan, Corey
Mwamba and Liran Donin to a packed house at the Albany in Deptford, the main
space being transformed into a Bedouin lounge, as part of the Future Fusions
Takeover festival on 18th March 2010. Arun Ghosh's score was presented as a
live-action silhouette film with the musicians seen by the audience as shadows
behind a screen in homage to Lotte Reiniger's cinematic style.Seattle composers David Miles
Keenan and Nova Karina Devonie, aka "Miles and Karina", were
commissioned by the Northwest Film Forum in 2007 to compose a new score to be
performed live for its annual Children's Film Festival '08 and again in '09.
The duo continue to perform their score with the film and have done so at
Australia's Woodford Folk Festival '09/'10; The Tucson Fox Theater Nov. 2010;
Denver Film Society's Starz Cinema Mar. 2010; Waterloo Festival for Animated
Cinema Nov. 2008; St. Louis Art Museum Sept. 2008; Seattle International Film
Festival April 2011; Bainbridge Performing Arts April 2011 and others. Their
score uses accordion, guitar, banjo, glockenspiel, viola, percussion, slide whistle
and other contraptions.
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