“To date she has no rivals,
and for all practical purposes the history of silhouette animation begins and ends with Reiniger.’’ Philip Kemp
I
have chosen to research Lotte Reiniger who is an inspiration for her successful
independent filmmaking career comprising entirely of silhouette animation. She
began to use her self-taught talent of making card silhouettes for play acting,
depicting the work of Shakespeare at a young age. Her Production design and
creative vision in pioneering the use of silhouettes in animation demonstrates
her promotion of the avant-garde. Hans Richter described her as belonging “to
the avant-garde as far as independent production and courage were concerned’’. Her new and experimental methods allowed
beautifully intricate imagery to be formed, but more importantly, Reiniger
brought them to life with a fluidity to become “a visual expression of mozart’s
music’’ according to Renoir. Cecile Starr agreed with this, describing her
animation as having “balletic movements”.
Born in Berlin on the 2nd June 1899 and dying
on in June 1981, Lotte Reigner made her first full length feature animation in
her twenties and went on to enjoy a career spanning 60 years. Initially
aspiring to become an actress, Reigner studied at the Max Reinhardt theatre
school 1916- 17, but it was her talent for self-taught free handed cuttings of
silhouettes which attracted the attention of film director, Paul Wegener. This
is when her career began, creating ontertitles of Paul Wegener’s Rubezahls
Hochzeit. It was through Wegener that
she was introduced to Hans Curlis who was at the head of the Beliner Institut
fur Kulturforschung- an experimental animation studio. Fortunate enough to have
the financial backing of young Berlin banker, Louis Hagen, Reiniger, along with
Carl Koch, Walther Ruttmannand, and Barthold Bartosch, created what is commonly
referred to as the first full length feature animated film- ‘The Adventures of
Prince Achmed’. Although the film was successful, she focused mainly on shorts
and sequences to be inserted into other people’s films. She also created book
illustrations and commercials to help fund her films, one of which was ‘The
Marquises Secret’ for Nivea Skincare products. 
Carl
Koch eventually became her Producer and Camera operator; she later married in
1921. They moved to Britain in the 1930s
after the Nazis uprising, where she made ‘the kings breakfast’ in 1936 with Len
Lye and Norman McLaren. From the beginning of the 1950s, she worked in TV, made
sets and figures for Hoghart’s puppets, and collaborated with the National Film
Board of Canada. Together, they also set up Primrose Productions with Louis
Hagen jr (the son of their previous patron).
She
represents that animation is a form of art, much like storytelling and dance. Often
comparing filmmaking to ballet, Reiniger claimed that “film
is movement”, explaining that “It’s the combination of curves and diagonals
that gives ballet and animation their sweet tenderness and their striking
directness.” Believing in representing narrative at the heart of her films, she
looked to fairy tales for inspiration. Focusing her work on fairy tales,
she based 12 films for American television on tales by the Brother Grimm,
Welhelm Hauff, Hans Christian Anderson. Fairytales were obviously an important
influence in her career; she expressed this stating, ‘’ I believe in the truth
of fairytales more than the newspaper’’. This suggests that she believed in
keeping fairytales alive for generations, the timeless qualities are kept alive
in their diversity of applications to convey morals. Her book, ‘Shadow theatres
and shadow films (1970)’, ‘in deciding on the theme for your show it is wise to
choose one which could not be presented in a play with real actors. Fairytales,
myths, fables, fantastic poem or plays will be suitable.’’ Cecile starr
commented on her work stating that “like the fables and myths and fairy tales
on which many of her films are based, her work transcends time and fashion.’’
Reiniger is important
to the industry as a pioneer of her craft; using basic materials to bring narratives
to life. In a way, her work is a combination of traditional drawn animation in
that her designs are flat shapes, and stop motion, in that their joints are
connected by wire and moved frame by frame. She professed that “even with
primitive materials, one can work small wonders’’, and she certainly
demonstrated this in her films using only card, scissors, and wire. The cut and
wire joined silhouettes were arranged on top of a lightbox, and photographed
frame by frame. Reiniger’s backgrounds were often created in watercolour by
Walter Ruttman. She was also a pioneer of multiplane which is a layering of
glass under the camera to add depth and complexity to 2D animation; a modern
day application of this could be using After Effects to place images on
different distances from the camera. 
An example of a modern day use of silhouettes
is featured in the Harry Potter sequence depicting the ‘Deathly Hallows’.
Influenced by Reiniger, Ben Hibon directed the animation sequence in Harry Potter in which the
tale of the ‘Deathly Hallows’ is told. Supervised by Dale Newton, the piece was
created by Framestore. They used shadow puppetry to bring it to life: they used
a flame as a light source and projected pole puppets onto a cloth. The closer
the puppet was to the cloth, the crisper the image appears and vice versa.
Hibon’s has had commercial success with clients such as Channel 4, Warner
Brothers, Nissan, SONY playstations, as well as received recognition by the
British Animation Awards, D&AD, and Edinburgh and Stockholm International
Film Festivals.
After researching
the work of Lotte Reiniger, I would like to go into Directing; being
responsible for the vision and style of the Production. Fascinated with her
intricate, gothic style, I would like to take inspiration from her silhouette
animation when creating my own work. I would also like to go into Story
Artistry, creating Story boards. Inspired by her founding of Primrose
Production, I would like to eventually, in the future, set up my own company
with my sister who is currently studying a degree in English and Publishing
which would contribute to the setting up of a studio.
Bibliography:
Websites
Article
‘Scissors make Films’ in Sight and Sound (London), Spring
1936
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