Review on Lotte Reiniger

Review on Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger had created animation using silhouettes, one of the first being called Cinderella in 1922. This short animation is made up of entirely silhouettes, without details we can use our imagination to fill in the gaps as mentioned by Dan North on drnorth.wordpress.com. 'Animated figures provide archetypal rather than definitive renderings of fairytale characters, and particularly in Reiniger’s monochromatic stories, the images allow space for the viewer’s imagination to fill in the gaps.' (North, 2009) Reiniger created all her films and was also in charge of them, creating all the characters and storyboards, as explained by William Moritz on awn.com. 'Lotte Reiniger herself is the prime genius behind all of her films. She had an astonishing facility with cutting--holding the scissors still in her right hand, and manipulating the paper at lightning speed with her left hand so that the cut always went in the right direction. She drew the storyboards and devised the plots and characters, which were closely linked.' (Moritz, 1996) Reiniger's style is unique and she has made this style utterly her own. No one else has come close to her style in animation, as mentioned by Philip Kemp on screenonline.org.uk. 'Among the great figures in animated film, Lotte Reiniger stands alone. No one else has taken a specific animation technique and made it so utterly her own. To date she has no rivals, and for all practical purposes the history of silhouette animation begins and ends with Reiniger.' (Kemp, 2010) 

 Cinderella

List of Illustrations

  

Figure 1. Reiniger, Lotte (1923) Lotte Reiniger. [Photograph] At: http://www.animationarchive.org/labels/cutout.html (Accessed on: 16.03.11)

Figure 2. Reiniger, Lotte (1922) Cinderella. [Screen cap] At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/lotte-reinigers-cinderella-1922/ (Accessed on: 16.03.11)

  

Bibliography

Kemp, Philip (2010) Reiniger, Lotte (1899-1981). http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/528134/ (Accessed on: 16.03.11)

Moritz, William (1996) Lotte Reiniger. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.3/articles/moritz1.3.html (Accessed on: 16. 03.11)

North, Dan (2009) Spectacular Attractions. http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/lotte-reinigers-cinderella-1922/ (Accessed on: 16.03.11)