Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are The Adventures of Prince Achmed, from 1926, the oldest surviving feature-length animated film, and Papageno (1935). Reiniger is also noted for having devised, from 1923 to 1926, the first form of a multiplane camera, one of the most important devices in pre digital animation. Reiniger worked on more than 40 films throughout her career.

Biography

Early life

Lotte Reiniger was born in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin on 2 June 1899 to Carl Reiniger and Eleonore Lina Wilhelmine Rakette. Here, she studied at Charlottenburger Waldschule, the first open-air school, where she learned the art of scherenschnitte, the German art of silhouette, inspired by the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting and silhouette puppetry. As a child, she became fascinated with this Chinese art of paper cutting of silhouette puppetry, and even built her own puppet theatre so that she could put on shows for her family and friends.

As a teenager, Reiniger developed a love of cinema, first with the films of Georges Méliès for their special effects, then the films of the actor and director Paul Wegener, a German actor, writer, and film director known for his pioneering role in German expressionist cinema and The Golem (1920). In 1915, her love of theater led Reiniger to her future mentor and colleague when she attended a lecture by Wegener that focused on the fantastic possibilities of animation. She started making silhouette portraits of her classmates and the actors around her, which intrigued Paul Wegener and led to her future collaborations with the director. Soon enough she was making elaborate title cards for Wegener's films, many of which featured her silhouette animations.

Adulthood and success

In 1918, Reiniger animated wooden rats and created the animated intertitles for Wegener's Der Rattenfänger von Hameln (The Pied Piper of Hamelin). The success of this work got her admitted into the Institut für Kulturforschung (Institute for Cultural Research), an experimental animation and short-film studio. It was here that she met her future creative partner and husband (from 1921), Carl Koch, as well as other avant-garde artists including Hans Cürlis, Bertolt Brecht, and Berthold Bartosch. She began animating films of her own.

The first film Reiniger directed was Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens (The Ornament of the Enamoured Heart, 1919), a five-minute piece involving two lovers and an ornament that reflects their moods. The film was an early showcase for Reiniger's style of expression through movement. The film was very well received,

thumb|thumbtime=360|Cinderella (1922)

She made six short films over the next few years, all produced and photographed by her husband, including the fairytale animation Aschenputtel (1922), based on the Brothers Grimm telling of Cinderella. These shorts were interspersed with advertising films (the Julius Pinschewer advertising agency sponsored a large number of abstract animators during the Weimar period) and special effects for various feature films—most famously a silhouette falcon for a dream sequence in Part One of Die Nibelungen by Fritz Lang. During this time, she found herself at the centre of a large group of ambitious German animators, including Bartosch, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger. Although it failed to find a distributor for almost a year, once premiered in Paris (thanks to the support of Jean Renoir), it became a critical and popular success.

Reiniger developed a predecessor to the multiplane camera for certain effects. As described in Reiniger's book Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theatres, and Shadow Films, she placed backlit planes of glass in front of a camera with a manual shutter to achieve a layered effect. Again, she presaged Disney; only in the 1930s would Disney and Ub Iwerks develop the version of the multiplane camera that would become a mainstay of traditional animation. In addition to Reiniger's silhouette characters, Prince Achmed featured dream-like backgrounds by Walter Ruttmann (her partner in the Die Nibelungen sequence) and Walter Türck, and a symphonic score by Wolfgang Zeller. Additional effects were added by Carl Koch and Berthold Bartosch.

Following the success of Prince Achmed, Reiniger was able to make a second feature. Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere (Doctor Dolittle and his Animals, 1928) was based on the first of the English children's books by Hugh Lofting. The film tells of the doctor's voyage to Africa to help heal sick animals. It is currently available only in a television version with new music, voice-over narration, and a high framerate. The score of this three-part film was composed by Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith and Paul Dessau.

A year later, Reiniger co-directed her first live-action film with Rochus Gliese, Die Jagd nach dem Glück (The Pursuit of Happiness, 1929), a tale about a shadow-puppet troupe. The film starred Jean Renoir and Berthold Bartosch and included a 20-minute silhouette performance by Reiniger. The film was completed just as sound came to Germany, and release of the film was delayed until 1930 to dub in voices by different actors.

Flight from Germany and later life

With the rise of the Nazi Party, Reiniger and Koch decided to emigrate (both were involved in left-wing politics), but found that no other country would give them permanent visas. As a result, the couple spent the years 1933–1944 moving from country to country, staying as long as visas would allow. With the release of sound film, Reiniger and her husband began to work with music in relation to animation. Under the rule of Hitler, Reiniger was forced to make propaganda films for Germany. One of these films is called (The Golden Goose, 1944). She had to work under stringent and limiting conditions to please the German state, which is why some of her work in this time period may appear creatively stifled.

After a period of seclusion after her husband's death in 1963, renewed interest in her work resulted in Reiniger's return to Germany. She later visited the United States, and began making films again soon after. She made three more films, the last of which, Die vier Jahreszeiten, (The Four Seasons) was completed the year before she died.

thumb|Reiniger in 1970

Reiniger was awarded the of the Deutscher Filmpreis in 1972; in 1979 she received the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Reiniger's figures resemble stop-motion animation in the way that they move.

She also utilized the technique of metamorphosis often in her animations. This focus on transformation greatly benefits her tendency to work with fairytale stories. The Adventures of Prince Achmed specifically adapts fantastic elements to take advantage of animation to show things that could not be shown in reality.

At that time, film did not have the technological advancements to create magical special effects, thus many fairytales that showcased extravagant magical events were not as desirable for filmmakers. However, through animation, such whimsical effects were possible through her paper animations. Reiniger's detailed settings and colourful backgrounds meant that her style translated well into her love of fairytale stories.

The influence of traditional Chinese shadow puppetry is also one of the defining characteristics of Reiniger’s work. Chinese puppetry dates back to the Han dynasty, but their methods of puppetry are clearly reflected in Reiniger’s techniques. Chinese shadow puppets were historically made using donkey skin and treated to be translucent. They were then mounted using iron wire and bamboo sticks as handles. Reiniger’s puppets were made from tracing paper and cardboard, and sometimes included 20-50 separate pieces that were fused together with lead wire.

Aside from the origins of her technical inspiration, her subjects were often influenced by operatic themes. Music was the driving force behind many of the storylines as well as the movements and actions of the puppets. She used the music of composers such as Mozart, Bizet, and Offenbach, as well as contemporary artists like Paul Dessau and Wolfgang Zeller. Jean Renoir, a good friend of Reiniger's, once described her work as "visual expression of Mozart's music".

Legacy, honors, and preservation

thumb|right|A plaque commemorating Reiniger at her former home on Knesebeckstraße in [[Berlin|Berlin, Germany.]]

Reiniger's black silhouettes would become a popular aesthetic to reference in films and art. Films and television shows such as Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Steven Universe, and Bram Stoker's Dracula all make reference to Reiniger’s style with extended animated silhouette puppet sequences. French animator Michel Ocelot has extensively shown Reiniger’s influence on his work, beginning with the 1989 television series Ciné si, which employs many of the techniques created by Reiniger, along with others of Ocelot’s own invention. Ocelot’s films, such as Princes et princesses, The Three Inventors, and Kirikou and the Sorceress showcase character designs and layouts deeply inspired by Reiniger.

Walt Disney Animation Studios used the multiplane camera extensively in films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Old Mill, based on the technology that Reiniger originally developed.

Reiniger's films were the first to move animation from solely comedic narratives. At the time, animated short films rarely had a narrative, and any narrative that they did have was shallow and only present in the film to support the character’s slapstick comedy. Throughout all of her films, both short and feature length, Reininger strives to portray serious narrative through the art of animation. Thus, gaining a much larger respect for the medium in the film industry.

In 2017, the European Animation Awards created the Lotte Reiniger Lifetime Achievement Award in order to recognize individuals for their lifetime contribution to the art of animation in either producing, directing, animating, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects, technical work, music, professional teaching, or for other endeavors which exhibit an outstanding contribution to excellence in animation. The very first recipient of this award was Richard Williams, the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and author of The Animator's Survival Kit.

The municipal museum in Tübingen holds much of her original materials and hosts a permanent exhibition, "The World in Light and Shadow: Silhouette, shadow theatre, silhouette film". The Filmmuseum Düsseldorf also holds many materials of Lotte Reiniger's work, including her animation table, and a part of the permanent exhibition is dedicated to her. Collections relating to her are also held at the BFI National Archive.

On June 2, 2016, Google celebrated Reiniger's 117th birthday with a Google Doodle about her.

The Lottie file format for vector animation, which is considered by many designers to be the best website animation format, is named for Reiniger.

In 2024, Reiniger was posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay Award at that year’s Annie Awards in recognition of her “unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation”.

Awards

  • 1936 – Venice Film Festival: Mussolini Cup for Best Foreign Film – Nominee
  • 1972 – German Film Awards: Honorary Award – Winner
  • Reiniger, Rike. 24 frames/sec - Theater-Feature zu Lotte Reiniger, Pionierin des Trickfilms: Theaterstückverlag München 2023
  • Reiniger, Rike. Wie die Trickfilmpionierin Lotte Reiniger Geschichte schrieb: Berliner Zeitung 1.3.2023
  • Stone, Susan. Lotte Reiniger: Podcast #11 "The Dead Ladies Show", 25.7.2018
  • Bendazzi, Giannalberto (Anna Taraboletti-Segre, translator). Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation. Indiana University Press. (reprint, paperback, 2001).
  • Cavalier, Steven. The world history of animation // Animation. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2011.
  • Crafton, Donald. Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898–1928. University of Chicago Press. (2nd edition, paperback, 1993).
  • Giesen, Rolf (2012). Animation Under the Swastika. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 200. .
  • Kaes, Anton, Michael Cowan and Nicholas Baer, eds. (2016). The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907–1933. Oakland: University of California Press.
  • Moritz, William. "Some Critical Perspectives on Lotte Reiniger." Animation Journal 5:1 (Fall 1996). 40–51.
  • Leslie, Esther. Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde. London: Verso, 2002. .
  • Reiniger, Lotte. Shadow Theatres and Shadow Films. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1970. Print.
  • Schönfeld, Christiane. (2006). Practicing modernity : female creativity in the Weimar Republic. Würzburg : Königshausen & Neumann.
  • "Lotte Reiniger's Silhouettes" by Abhijit Ghosh Dasitidar
  • Essay on Reiniger by William Moritz (includes filmography)
  • Profile of Reiniger at the Women Film Pioneers website
  • "Lotte Reiniger" by Christine Ott