Wonderful piece! In Taiwan there is a long history of puppet theater. We have a few magnificent puppetry museums here that showcase this rare and underappreciated form of performance. The film you researched shows an incredible amount of dedication and talent!
Thank you! And Reiniger had a real love for shadow puppet theater -- she even wrote a book called "Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theaters and Shadow Films," which goes deep into the theory and practice of these forms. We'd love to see a shadow play in person one day!
It's an amazingly gorgeous film. Glad so many folks are continuing to watch it in modern times -- a lot of animation from the '20s isn't widely relevant anymore, but Prince Achmed persists somehow.
"I felt very bashful towards my serious collaborators, to engage them in such a fairy tale world, but for me it was real. “What has this to do with the year 1923?” said Walter Ruttmann. “Nothing,” I could only say, “but that I am alive now, and I want to do it as I have the chance.”" -- This was so inspiring!!
I work at the Muskegon Museum of Art (Michigan) and we have a show opening later this month that will feature Reiniger's work, among others. I was happy to see her featured here this week!
A blurb on our show- I know it's a bit self-serving, but thought you might be interested.
"HerStory of Animation: Mary Blair & Beyond, re-defines our collected animated past by revealing the story of unsung forces of animation: women. In a first-of-its-kind exhibition, women’s contributions to the animated art form are explored from earliest pre-cinematic forms in ceramic narratives, shadow puppetry and magic lanterns, to a century of hand-drawn, stop motion, and experimental animation."
This sounds like a really cool show! Mindy Johnson's involvement as curator is particularly great to see. Thanks for the tip -- we'll include a mention in our next news section.
I still remember learning about Lotte Reiniger on a random internet forum (which was quite ironic since I was in art school at the time and nobody taught me about her), finding a low-resolution torrent of it and being utterly entranced regardless. Apparently there are some higher-resolution options out there these days, so I'm long overdue for a rewatch!
One core memory of that experience is saying "WHAT THE FUCK?!" when I noticed the rippled reflections in the water during Peri Banu's bathing scene. Especially the last few frames of the waves at the bottom-left at 16:40 giving the impression of water being disturbed.
Sure, it's not a perfect illusion if you look at it directly, but tell me the illusion doesn't succeed in fooling your brain too if put your visual focus on Peri Banu or her attendants, and the waves are in the corner of your eye! (which is how you normally would watch this scene)
I mean, I'm not an animator so maybe I'm overestimating how difficult this must have been, but the idea that anyone can imagine how to jostle some lead shavings around to make the end result look like water ripples reacting to people stepping into a lake is still mind-blowing to me.
EDIT: Reiniger's account makes it sound like it was Bartosch who must have animated that sequence, given how they couldn't stop him from "experimenting" with waves. I did notice that there was quite a bit of variety in how the waves were depicted, and was wondering about that!
(I'm probably sounding like one of my mentors used to do whenever he complained/raved about how much effort it takes him to paint realistic creases in folded clothes and cloth, and how Frans Hals was basically flexing by making it look like he can just throw a few sloppy strokes on a canvas and then completely nail it).
The whole film is like a giant magic trick -- there are effects in there we still don't really understand. In terms of the water ripples, those look like Reiniger's work to us, and they do appear to be a bunch of tiny clippings of lead and cardboard that she moved frame by frame. It's incredible how much of an effect she got out of so little. (And highly recommend the Blu-ray editions of this film, especially when played with the original score. The restoration is excellent!)
I want you to know that this comment motivated me to *finally* buy an external BR reader/writer. That, and the Japanese 2K Yuri Norstein Collection that's been collecting dust on my shelf after I panic-bought it a few years ago despite not having a player for it, when it was announced that they would go out of production (perhaps I was tipped by you?).
(Any recommendations for websites that let me compare different versions of Blu-ray releases, so I know which edition to get? In general I mean, since I probably want to grow my collection anyway)
Ah, honored to hear this! We had to buy a USB Blu-ray reader ourselves for the newsletter a few years ago -- it's been key.
Unfortunately, we're not aware of any general resources for Blu-ray comparisons like these, especially for international releases. With Prince Achmed specifically, though, the BFI and German Absolut Medien editions are both nice. The German one is darker and runs at a slightly slowly speed, and has different bonus features, but it's hard to call one obviously superior to the other. You can see a short comparison here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFoTQR7tX2E
We haven't picked up the Milestone Blu-ray release of Achmed yet -- not sure how it differs, besides the bonus features. But it seems to be based on the definitive 1999 restoration, just as the other two Blu-rays are, so it should seemingly be hard to go wrong!
A really cool modern-ish postscript: the great Swedish psychedelic band Dungen did a live scoring of the original film performed at the Getty in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and released it as an album called Häxan in 2016. Well worth seeking out.
Thanks very much for the tip! It's a really interesting phenomenon that so many musicians have done their own scores for this film over the years -- love that it's keeping Prince Achmed around as a living thing all these decades later.
Loved, loved, loved this! Thanks so much! A wonderful article and Lottie’s quote, “What has this to do with the year 1923?” said Walter Ruttmann. “Nothing,” I could only say, “but that I am alive now, and I want to do it as I have the chance.” Rings true after a hundred years. Thanks again for this great inspiring piece!
Wonderful piece! In Taiwan there is a long history of puppet theater. We have a few magnificent puppetry museums here that showcase this rare and underappreciated form of performance. The film you researched shows an incredible amount of dedication and talent!
Thank you! And Reiniger had a real love for shadow puppet theater -- she even wrote a book called "Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theaters and Shadow Films," which goes deep into the theory and practice of these forms. We'd love to see a shadow play in person one day!
The craftsmanship never ceases to amaze me.
It's an amazingly gorgeous film. Glad so many folks are continuing to watch it in modern times -- a lot of animation from the '20s isn't widely relevant anymore, but Prince Achmed persists somehow.
The film has a haunting, visual, esthetic. It immediately draws you in.
This is so true, what a piece.
"I felt very bashful towards my serious collaborators, to engage them in such a fairy tale world, but for me it was real. “What has this to do with the year 1923?” said Walter Ruttmann. “Nothing,” I could only say, “but that I am alive now, and I want to do it as I have the chance.”" -- This was so inspiring!!
It's one of our favorite anecdotes that Reiniger shared across her life! Incredible quote -- happy we could share it here!
I love this newsletter
Thank you so much!
This is just great. What a legend.
Very happy to share her story for the anniversary -- Reiniger is one of the greatest of all time, and the same goes for Prince Achmed.
I work at the Muskegon Museum of Art (Michigan) and we have a show opening later this month that will feature Reiniger's work, among others. I was happy to see her featured here this week!
A blurb on our show- I know it's a bit self-serving, but thought you might be interested.
"HerStory of Animation: Mary Blair & Beyond, re-defines our collected animated past by revealing the story of unsung forces of animation: women. In a first-of-its-kind exhibition, women’s contributions to the animated art form are explored from earliest pre-cinematic forms in ceramic narratives, shadow puppetry and magic lanterns, to a century of hand-drawn, stop motion, and experimental animation."
This sounds like a really cool show! Mindy Johnson's involvement as curator is particularly great to see. Thanks for the tip -- we'll include a mention in our next news section.
I still remember learning about Lotte Reiniger on a random internet forum (which was quite ironic since I was in art school at the time and nobody taught me about her), finding a low-resolution torrent of it and being utterly entranced regardless. Apparently there are some higher-resolution options out there these days, so I'm long overdue for a rewatch!
One core memory of that experience is saying "WHAT THE FUCK?!" when I noticed the rippled reflections in the water during Peri Banu's bathing scene. Especially the last few frames of the waves at the bottom-left at 16:40 giving the impression of water being disturbed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V_8aFQUfBw&t=16m30s
Sure, it's not a perfect illusion if you look at it directly, but tell me the illusion doesn't succeed in fooling your brain too if put your visual focus on Peri Banu or her attendants, and the waves are in the corner of your eye! (which is how you normally would watch this scene)
I mean, I'm not an animator so maybe I'm overestimating how difficult this must have been, but the idea that anyone can imagine how to jostle some lead shavings around to make the end result look like water ripples reacting to people stepping into a lake is still mind-blowing to me.
EDIT: Reiniger's account makes it sound like it was Bartosch who must have animated that sequence, given how they couldn't stop him from "experimenting" with waves. I did notice that there was quite a bit of variety in how the waves were depicted, and was wondering about that!
(I'm probably sounding like one of my mentors used to do whenever he complained/raved about how much effort it takes him to paint realistic creases in folded clothes and cloth, and how Frans Hals was basically flexing by making it look like he can just throw a few sloppy strokes on a canvas and then completely nail it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frans_Hals
The whole film is like a giant magic trick -- there are effects in there we still don't really understand. In terms of the water ripples, those look like Reiniger's work to us, and they do appear to be a bunch of tiny clippings of lead and cardboard that she moved frame by frame. It's incredible how much of an effect she got out of so little. (And highly recommend the Blu-ray editions of this film, especially when played with the original score. The restoration is excellent!)
I want you to know that this comment motivated me to *finally* buy an external BR reader/writer. That, and the Japanese 2K Yuri Norstein Collection that's been collecting dust on my shelf after I panic-bought it a few years ago despite not having a player for it, when it was announced that they would go out of production (perhaps I was tipped by you?).
(Any recommendations for websites that let me compare different versions of Blu-ray releases, so I know which edition to get? In general I mean, since I probably want to grow my collection anyway)
Ah, honored to hear this! We had to buy a USB Blu-ray reader ourselves for the newsletter a few years ago -- it's been key.
Unfortunately, we're not aware of any general resources for Blu-ray comparisons like these, especially for international releases. With Prince Achmed specifically, though, the BFI and German Absolut Medien editions are both nice. The German one is darker and runs at a slightly slowly speed, and has different bonus features, but it's hard to call one obviously superior to the other. You can see a short comparison here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFoTQR7tX2E
We haven't picked up the Milestone Blu-ray release of Achmed yet -- not sure how it differs, besides the bonus features. But it seems to be based on the definitive 1999 restoration, just as the other two Blu-rays are, so it should seemingly be hard to go wrong!
A really cool modern-ish postscript: the great Swedish psychedelic band Dungen did a live scoring of the original film performed at the Getty in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and released it as an album called Häxan in 2016. Well worth seeking out.
Thanks very much for the tip! It's a really interesting phenomenon that so many musicians have done their own scores for this film over the years -- love that it's keeping Prince Achmed around as a living thing all these decades later.
Thanks a lot.
Happy to shout out the great work you're doing. Welcome to the platform!
This is such an amazing piece!
Thanks a ton!
Loved, loved, loved this! Thanks so much! A wonderful article and Lottie’s quote, “What has this to do with the year 1923?” said Walter Ruttmann. “Nothing,” I could only say, “but that I am alive now, and I want to do it as I have the chance.” Rings true after a hundred years. Thanks again for this great inspiring piece!
Ah, so awesome to read this! Glad you liked the piece -- we're happy we could share her story!
My morning celsius and a new essay on Animation Obsessive. Things are okay.
Thanks so much, as always!
Another great article. You might be the best thing on substack.
Thanks a ton! That's extremely kind -- glad you're enjoying.