The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Encyclopedia
The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger
. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani
, but they are considered lost
. The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation
technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang
shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting
.
Several famous avant-garde animators worked on this film with Lotte Reiniger. These included Walter Ruttmann
, Berthold Bartosch
, and Carl Koch.
's The Blue Fairy Book. With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic horse, the title character reclaims the magic lamp and conquers the African sorcerer. The culminating scene in the film is the battle between "die Hexe" (the witch) and "der afrikanische Zauberer" (the African sorcerer), in which those characters undergo fabulous transformations. All is well in the end: Aladdin marries Dinarsade (Achmed's sister and daughter of the Caliph); Achmed forces Pari Banu to marry him; the African sorcerer is defeated; and the foursome return to the Caliph's kingdom. Later Pari Banu- a goddess- steals a featherboa from Achmed so she can turn into a bird and fly home.
prints of the film are known to still exist. While the original film featured color tinting, prints available just prior to the restoration had all been in black and white. Working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists have restored
the film in 1998/99 including reinstating the original tinted image by using the Desmet method
.
. English-market DVDs are available, NTSC
R1
(from Image
) and PAL
R2
(from the BFI
). Both versions of the DVD are identical. They feature both an English-subtitled version (the intertitles are in German) and an English voice-over.
in direct collaboration with the animation of the film. Reiniger created photograms for the orchestras, which were common in better theatres of the time, to follow along the filmic action.
The Silk Road Ensemble accompanied the film with a live improvised performance on Western strings and instruments such as the oud
, ney
and sheng
in October 2006 at the Rubin Museum of Art
in New York, NY. The Silk Road Ensemble repeated the performance at the Avon Cinema
in Providence, RI, in February 2007.
The British film composer Geoff Smith composed a new score for the film in 2008, which he performed live as an accompaniment to screenings of the film.
An alternative score was written and presented to the public December 16, 2009 by Indian composer and guitarist, Rahul Roy
( the composer, not to be confused with an actor of the same name ). The authorized screening was presented at Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts on that date, with over fifty people in attendance.
Another alternative score was conceived and performed by the British-Asian clarinettist and composer, Arun Ghosh and featured Adriano Adewale, Shabaka Hutchings, Jenny Adejayan, Corey Mwamba and Liran Donin to a packed house at the Albany in Deptford, the main space being transformed into a Bedouin lounge, as part of the Future Fusions Takeover festival on 18th March 2010. Arun Ghosh's score was presented as a live-action silhouette film with the musicians seen by the audience as shadows behind a screen in homage to Lotte Reiniger's cinematic style.
Seattle composers David Miles Keenan and Nova Karina Devonie, aka "Miles and Karina", were commissioned by the Northwest Film Forum
in 2007 to compose a new score to be performed live for its annual Children's Film Festival '08 and again in '09. The duo continue to perform their score with the film and have done so at Australia's Woodford Folk Festival
'09/'10; The Tucson Fox Theater Nov. 2010; Denver Film Society's Starz Cinema Mar. 2010; Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema
Nov. 2008; St. Louis Art Museum Sept. 2008; Seattle International Film Festival
April 2011; Bainbridge Performing Arts April 2011 and others. Their score uses accordion, guitar, banjo, glockenspiel, viola, percussion, slide whistle and other contraptions.
Lotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani
Quirino Cristiani
Quirino Cristiani was an Argentine animation director and cartoonist, responsible for the world's first two animated feature films as well as the first animated feature film with sound, even though the only copies of these two films were lost in a fire...
, but they are considered lost
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation
Silhouette animation
Silhouette animation is animation in which the characters are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by backlighting articulated cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist...
technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang
Wayang
Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...
shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting
Film tinting
Film tinting is the process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion...
.
Several famous avant-garde animators worked on this film with Lotte Reiniger. These included Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film....
, Berthold Bartosch
Berthold Bartosch
Berthold Bartosch was a film-maker, born in Bohemia .He moved to Berlin in 1920 and collaborated with Lotte Reiniger on her paper silhouette animations:*The Ornament of the Loving Heart...
, and Carl Koch.
Plot
The story is based on elements taken from the collection 1001 Arabian Nights, specifically The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou featured in Andrew LangAndrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
's The Blue Fairy Book. With the assistance of Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountain, and a magic horse, the title character reclaims the magic lamp and conquers the African sorcerer. The culminating scene in the film is the battle between "die Hexe" (the witch) and "der afrikanische Zauberer" (the African sorcerer), in which those characters undergo fabulous transformations. All is well in the end: Aladdin marries Dinarsade (Achmed's sister and daughter of the Caliph); Achmed forces Pari Banu to marry him; the African sorcerer is defeated; and the foursome return to the Caliph's kingdom. Later Pari Banu- a goddess- steals a featherboa from Achmed so she can turn into a bird and fly home.
Restoration
No original German nitrateNitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to nitric acid or another powerful nitrating agent. When used as a propellant or low-order explosive, it is also known as guncotton...
prints of the film are known to still exist. While the original film featured color tinting, prints available just prior to the restoration had all been in black and white. Working from surviving nitrate prints, German and British archivists have restored
Film preservation
thumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
the film in 1998/99 including reinstating the original tinted image by using the Desmet method
Desmet method
The so-called Desmet Method is a method for restoring the colours of early silent films, which had originally been subjected to the processes of either:* Film tinting – a process that suffuses the entire image a single colour...
.
Availability
The film is screened fairly often on Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
. English-market DVDs are available, NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
R1
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
(from Image
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
) and PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
R2
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
(from the BFI
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
). Both versions of the DVD are identical. They feature both an English-subtitled version (the intertitles are in German) and an English voice-over.
Score
The original score was composed by German composer Wolfgang ZellerWolfgang Zeller
Wolfgang Zeller was a German composer noted for his complex film music.-Early life:Born in Biesenrode, Germany, Zeller was the son of a vicar. As a child, he studied violin and showed an aptitude for composition...
in direct collaboration with the animation of the film. Reiniger created photograms for the orchestras, which were common in better theatres of the time, to follow along the filmic action.
The Silk Road Ensemble accompanied the film with a live improvised performance on Western strings and instruments such as the oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
, ney
Ney
The ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found...
and sheng
Sheng (instrument)
The Chinese sheng is a mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes.Traditionally, the sheng has been used as an accompaniment instrument for solo suona or dizi performances. It is one of the main instruments in kunqu and some other forms of Chinese opera...
in October 2006 at the Rubin Museum of Art
Rubin Museum of Art
__notoc__The Rubin Museum of Art is a museum dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions, especially that of Tibet...
in New York, NY. The Silk Road Ensemble repeated the performance at the Avon Cinema
Avon Cinema
The Avon Cinema is an Art Deco Theatre opened on the East Side of Providence, near Brown University, since February, 1938 in the United States of America.-History:...
in Providence, RI, in February 2007.
The British film composer Geoff Smith composed a new score for the film in 2008, which he performed live as an accompaniment to screenings of the film.
An alternative score was written and presented to the public December 16, 2009 by Indian composer and guitarist, Rahul Roy
Rahul Roy
Rahul Roy Kapoor is an Indian film actor, who works in Bollywood films. He debuted in the hit Mahesh Bhatt production Aashiqui for which he is famous. His popularity increased with the 1992 film Sapne Saajan Ke, in which he was helped by having the music of Nadeem Shravan, with Kumar Sanu's...
( the composer, not to be confused with an actor of the same name ). The authorized screening was presented at Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts on that date, with over fifty people in attendance.
Another alternative score was conceived and performed by the British-Asian clarinettist and composer, Arun Ghosh and featured Adriano Adewale, Shabaka Hutchings, Jenny Adejayan, Corey Mwamba and Liran Donin to a packed house at the Albany in Deptford, the main space being transformed into a Bedouin lounge, as part of the Future Fusions Takeover festival on 18th March 2010. Arun Ghosh's score was presented as a live-action silhouette film with the musicians seen by the audience as shadows behind a screen in homage to Lotte Reiniger's cinematic style.
Seattle composers David Miles Keenan and Nova Karina Devonie, aka "Miles and Karina", were commissioned by the Northwest Film Forum
Northwest Film Forum
Northwest Film Forum is a non-profit film arts organization established in Seattle in 1995. NWFF operates a two-screen movie theater year-round in Seattle, but also offers workshops, equipment rentals, and filmmaking grants and sponsorships in support of local cinema...
in 2007 to compose a new score to be performed live for its annual Children's Film Festival '08 and again in '09. The duo continue to perform their score with the film and have done so at Australia's Woodford Folk Festival
Woodford Folk Festival
The Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music festival held near the small country town of Woodford, 72 km north of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events of its type in Australia....
'09/'10; The Tucson Fox Theater Nov. 2010; Denver Film Society's Starz Cinema Mar. 2010; Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema
Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema
The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema is an annual international film festival for animated feature films, held in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada...
Nov. 2008; St. Louis Art Museum Sept. 2008; Seattle International Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
The Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
April 2011; Bainbridge Performing Arts April 2011 and others. Their score uses accordion, guitar, banjo, glockenspiel, viola, percussion, slide whistle and other contraptions.