The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

36 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July-August. 1988 COLOURED SHADOWS From "The King's Breakfast," a recent Reiniger film. Lotte Reiniger's name is practically synonymous with the silhouette film. She has made twenty-five of them and many have been shown bv The Film Society. She designs all her own backgrounds and figures, cuts them out, ji>ints them, manipulates them, photographs them, and assembles the completed film. She is also one of the most charming people zee have ever met. — Editors. AS my technique is very simple, there is very little to say about it, but it may be ot some interest to talk about the artistic reasons which made me take up silhouettes. 1 am deeply convinced that the art of film is an art of movement, and as far as I can remember all the great successes were those films in which this quality of movement came out at its best, whether there was a great artist moving himself through the picture in a surprising way, like Chaplin, or whether the screen motion was obtained by a powerful use of montage, as in the Russian films, or whether the movements ot nature were observed and transferred truthfully and convincingly to the screen, as in the great documentaries, or whether the artificial process of making drawings dance and move was developed by an artist to a striking rhythm of his own, such as Walt Disney. It has always been this fantastic possibility of creating a new motion which has given me the greatest pleasure in my work. I first wanted intensely to become an actress, but I found 1 was tar more gifted at cutting silhouettes w ith scissors ! This period was a peak one for fantastic experiment in Germany. Due to inflation, money was worth nothing, and the commercial people were occasionally ready to give an artist a chance, since the cash lost its value each day anyhow. So I joined a group of artists, and together we made all sorts of experiments for trick films. They persuaded me to put my silhouettes, which by this time had achieved a small fame for their expressiveness, on the screen in the same way as a designer would produce his drawings. I constructed very articulated little figures, cut out of cardboard and lead, laid them out on a glass table, lit them from underneath, and photographed them from above, altering their position frame by frame. The backgrounds for these small actors were of transparent paper, also cut out with scissors, so that they had their own worlds, all linked by the same style. In the days of silent films I always looked for a suitable story first, usually a fantastic, one, which could be told in a straightforward way, and amused myself in adorning it with movement, more elaborate decors, light effects and all sorts of experiments for background motion. by LOTTE REINIGER M\ most violent outburst in that direction was a fulllength silhouette film on the Arabian Nights "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" — made in 1923-20. For this film I collaborated with the best German trick film artists. Waller Ruttman and Berthold Bartosch. A musical score was written before the production was finished, and various of the scenes played to fit the score. As these films were almost a one man job. they were cheap to produce and 1 could work happily in my own way. With the arrival of sound the problem became more severe, as costs were increasing and the films had to make more mone\ to be worth doing. The style had to be altered too. Where I formerly looked for a story. I now look for music. Where I formerly thought of funny hap Reverse side of silhouette figure ("Aladdin") used in "Prince Achmed," showing detailed articulation of the joints.