Lotte Reiniger has the
distinction of creating the very first feature animation, her
enthralling The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), an epic silhouette
film featuring highly ornate shapes of exotic lands, gallant heroes,
nefarious magic, and a rousing climax with a multi-headed beast. A
German leftist in the age of fascism, after the war she moved to
England, where she continued to build a visionary oeuvre totalling over
fifty films, mostly shorts, many of them for BBC Children’s TV. She
made her last film, The Rose and the Ring (1979), at the age of 80. In
addition to their craft and charm, her films have two outstanding
features: they are highly intricate, yet also opaque, inviting viewers
to fill in details with their own imagination, thus creating a
captivating aesthetic as commanding today as ever.
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