"She Was Born With Magic Hands" -- Jean Renoir

In the spring of 1936, Lotte Reiniger answered two of the most frequently asked questions regarding her silhouette film, Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed. The film, a smashing success, astounded viewers around the world, including the likes of French director Jean Renoir—but they all had two questions. First, how on earth did she get the idea? And secondly, how do the silhouettes move, and why are her hands not seen on screen?

According to Reiniger, she could cut silhouettes as she could hold a pair of scissors. “Everybody was astonished about the scissor cuts, which seemed a more unusual accomplishment” (Milestone Film Release 2). In 1919, she met actor and artist Paul Wegener, who hoped “to utilize the full possibilities of the camera for the development of film” (Milestone Film Release 2). He liked her silhouettes, thinking them to show “a rare sense of movement,” so he introduced her to a group of artists starting an animation film studio. In this studio she began to photograph her silhouette figures just as drawings are done for cartoons, and she realized that silhouette film was her life’s calling. She married one of the artists and worked with him to produce over forty silhouette films until her death in 1981.

How do the figures move? Reiniger mentioned that the technique for silhouette films was quite simple (but required pain-staking effort). First, scenes were photographed movement by movement using silhouette marionettes. Those figures were cut from black cardboard and lead, with each limb cut separately and attached with wire hinges (Milestone Film Release 3). Reiniger examined the natural movement of humans and animals to make the film more fluid, as well. The background pieces were cut in the same way as the characters, but from layers of transparent paper, which helped to unify the style of the pieces while clearly separating the characters from the backgrounds.

Once the figures were cut, the work of shooting the scenes began. Reiniger, herself, explained how the whole process went about. “Figures and backgrounds are laid out on a glass table. A strong light from underneath makes the wire hinges disappear and throw up the black figures in relief, while the background appears as a more or less fantastic landscape in keeping with the story. The camera hangs above this table, looking down at the picture arranged below. By means of a wire contrivance the film in the camera can be moved one frame at a time. After the first [frame], the figures are moved to their next position and [are all] photographed again. And so on. The important thing at this stage is to know how much to move the figures so that a lifelike effect may be obtained when the film is run through” (Milestone Film Release 3). Reiniger’s concern of balancing “lifelike effects” with the fantastical plot line enabled the film to appear believable to her audiences.

For many German filmmakers—as mentioned above—their appeal with the Arabian Nights stemmed from its socio-political relevance and a way for audiences to escape the intense pressures of post-WWI life. Lotte Reiniger does not make mention of the influence of the war and aftermath on her particular film, even though her audiences clearly used it as a temporary escape. In my opinion, Lotte Reiniger was the ultimate escapist, in the fact that she was basically removed from the entire social scene. Aside from her cohorts, with whom she constructed her 40-some films, she developed few relationships outside her eclectic sphere. She stayed in her apartment for much of her life, tediously constructing the hundreds of silhouettes needed for each film, while the rest of the world suffered through immense poverty. She had a unique talent, which kept her gainfully employed with money in her pocket, but millions of Germans were left poor and unemployed after the war. Perhaps it was difficult for her to relate to her war-torn audience; after all, she often mentioned how she related most to children, for whom she originally produced many of her films. Therefore, she was different than other filmmakers in their regard for the Arabian Nights. Still, her film had important consequences for the public, which I hope she realized.