Lotte cleaner

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Lotte Reiniger 1939
Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Knesebeckstrasse 11, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Lotte Reiniger (born June 2, 1899 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ; † June 19, 1981 in Dettenhausen ; actually Charlotte Reiniger ) was a German cutter , silhouette animation filmmaker and book illustrator . Your silhouette film " The Adventures of Prince Achmed " from 1926 is the first full-length animated film that has survived.

Life

Charlotte Reiniger grew up in a middle-class milieu in Charlottenburg. She was fascinated by the Chinese art of silhouette puppetry. She made her first puppet theater, the audience of which were her family and friends.

As a teenager she found her love for film. Initially they impressed Georges Méliès and his special effects. Then she discovered the films by Paul Wegener (actor and director), who inspired her to take acting lessons from Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin . Paul Wegener also brought her to the Institute for Cultural Research. There she met her future husband Carl Koch (1892–1963), whom she married on December 6, 1921.

Her first film work was made in 1919 with The Ornament of the Heart in Love .

She photographed her animation with silhouettes on a table she made herself. A glass plate is illuminated from below, on which the movable figures cut from black cardboard are placed. A camera mounted above the table photographs the scene. The early silent films required 16 shots per second.

In his film The Lost Shadow (1921) Paul Wegener built in parts of animated films by Lotte Reiniger. Then came advertising films for Julius Pinschewer and film adaptations from fairy tales such as Cinderella (1922) and Puss in Boots (1934). In 1923 Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch, Walter Ruttmann and Berthold Bartosch began the project of their first full-length silhouette animation film The Adventures of Prince Achmed , which was probably one of their most famous productions. They received generous financial support from the Jewish banker Louis Hagen . After 300,000 individual shots, the film was finished in 1926. All of these early films were strongly influenced by the formal idiom of cinematic expressionism, from which she broke away more and more in her subsequent films in favor of an aesthetic more strongly oriented towards Romanticism and Art Nouveau. For the next joint film Dr. Doolittle and his animals (1928) worked as composers Paul Dessau , Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith . Other musical films such as Harlequin (1931), Carmen (1933) and Papageno (1935) followed.

The publishers Else and Günther Wasmuth were among the friends of the Reiniger and Koch couple. Wasmuth published the film as a book.

In the 1920s she also learned a. a. László Moholy-Nagy , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Carl Zuckmayer , Hans Sahl , Fritz Lang and Georg Wilhelm Pabst . For the latter, she produced animation sequences for the real film Don Quixote (1933).

Reiniger was part of the literary scene around Bertolt Brecht , who was planning a play The Coffee Bag Thrower with a trick scene. Due to the political changes after 1933, it could never be realized.

Due to economic difficulties and also because they were friends with many Jews, Carl Koch and Lotte Reiniger decided to leave Germany at the beginning of the National Socialist era . In 1935 they first went to London. Since they did not receive permanent residence permits, they traveled on in 1943, stopping in Paris and Rome. Here, too, they had close contact with other artists.

Several chapters of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle and his animals were based on Lofting's own drawings. Lotte Reiniger was in contact with the author. After the three short films Die Reise nach Afrika , Dr. Dolittle in danger and In the lion's den , lack of money stood in the way of further work.

Igor Fjodorowitsch Stravinsky allowed Lotte Reiniger to use a piece from his Pulcinella suite as the musical background for a silhouette film, and Benjamin Britten even wrote the film music for The Tocher (1936). Further contacts enabled Lotte Reiniger and her husband to work with Jean Renoir on the film La Marseillaise (1937) and with Luchino Visconti .

At Christmas 1943 the couple reluctantly returned to Berlin to attend to Reiniger's sick mother. The film The Golden Goose was made between 1944 and 1947 .

Lotte Reiniger worked for the Berliner Schattenbühne from 1945 to 1948. In collaboration with her friend Elsbeth Schulz, the fairy tales Little Brother and Sister , Puss in Boots and Sleeping Beauty were created .

In 1949 the couple moved to the suburb of New Barnet in London . In the following years films were made for the BBC . Outstanding were the film adaptations of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm , Hans Christian Andersen and the stories from Thousand and One Nights in silhouette technique. For her film The Brave Little Tailor , she won at the Biennale in Venice in 1954 (other sources 1955) the "Silver Dolphin" (1st prize for short films). Lotte Reiniger also shaped the English reading public with her illustrations for a new edition of the Arthurian saga. At the time, he was still making silhouette short films for theaters in Glasgow and Coventry . In 1955 she designed her first silhouette film with a colored background.

In 1963, Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch's life and work partnership ended with his death.

In 1971 she devoted her interest to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In a cycle of 140 silhouettes, she realized motifs and scenes from operas such as Così fan tutte , Don Giovanni , Figaros Hochzeit and Die Zauberflöte (1973).

In 1979 she moved to Dettenhausen . After her death on June 19, 1981, she was buried with her husband's urn in the local cemetery. A plaque commemorates them there.

Honors

In 1972 she received the gold film ribbon for many years of outstanding work in German film and in 1979 the Great Federal Cross of Merit . In 2014 she was honored with a star on the Boulevard der Stars in Berlin. On November 17, 2014 , a Berlin memorial plaque was unveiled at her birthplace , Knesebeckstrasse 11, Berlin-Charlottenburg .

reception

Reiniger's work also attracted attention in academic reception. Julia Benner postulates: “Especially in scientific publications on the history of animated films, her name is almost never missing.” She also distinguishes Reiniger's influence on animated films: “Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) is rightly always a pioneer of film and not only because her silhouette film “ The Adventures of Prince Achmed ” (1926) is the first full-length animated film that has survived. With keen eyes and sharp scissors, Reiniger explored the possibilities of paper cutting and with her numerous works made a significant contribution to to gain recognition for this as an artistic medium. "

Work (selection)

Movies
  • 1916: Rübezahl's wedding (title silhouettes)
  • 1918: The Pied Piper (title silhouettes)
  • 1918: The foreign prince
  • 1919: The ornament of the heart in love (short animation film)
  • 1920: The flying suitcase (short animation film)
  • 1921: The Lost Shadow (title silhouettes)
  • 1922: Cinderella (short animation film)
  • 1926: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (animation film)
  • 1928: Doctor Dolittle and his animals (short animation film)
  • 1930: Ten minutes of Mozart (short animation film)
  • 1931: Harlequin
  • 1932: Sissi (short animation film)
  • 1933: Don Quixote (feature film)
  • 1933: The Rolling Wheel (short animation film)
  • 1933: Carmen
  • 1934: The Little Chimney Sweep (short animation film)
  • 1934: The Count of Carabas (short animation film)
  • 1934: The Stolen Heart (short animation film)
  • 1935: Papageno (short animation film)
  • 1935: Galathea (short animation film)
  • 1944–1947: The Golden Goose (short animation film)
  • 1953: The Little Chimney Sweep (short animation film)
  • 1954: Cinderella (short animation film / 2nd film adaptation)
  • 1954: Dornröschen / The Sleeping Beauty (short animation film)
  • 1954: The Frog King (short animation film)
  • 1954: The Locust and the Ant (short animation film)
  • 1954: The brave little tailor (short animation film)
  • 1954: Kalif Storch / Caliph Stork (short animation film)
  • 1954: Thumbelina
  • 1956: The Star of Bethlehem
script
Fonts
  • Living shadows. Art and technology of silhouette film. In: Edmund Bucher, Albrecht Kindt (ed.): Film photos like never before. Kindt & Bucher Verlag, Giessen 1929, DNB 580858219 , p. 45 f. (Ill, p. 114 f.)

estate

Part of Lotte Reiniger's estate is in the Tübingen City Museum , which is part of the “Lotte Reiniger Museum”. Another part of the estate, including Reiniger's trick table, is located in the Düsseldorf Film Museum , where part of the permanent exhibition is dedicated to Lotte Reiniger.

Google Doodle

In her honor, Google presented her with a Google Doodle on her 117th birthday on June 2, 2016 . Google also provided a "making of" on the creation of the doodle and her life story with original film recordings by and with Lotte Reiniger on YouTube .

literature

  • Eva Chrambach:  Cleaner, Lotte. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 370 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Margit Downar (arrangement): Lotte Reiniger: Silhouette film and shadow theater . For the exhibition of the Puppet Theater Museum in the Munich City Museum. Verlag Karl M. Lipp, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-87490-532-2 .
  • Lotte Reiniger, Carl Koch, Jean Renoir. Scenes of friendship . Institut Français, Center d'Information Cinématographique, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-920727-09-6 .
  • Werner Biedermann : Films, festivals and cineastes - conversation with Lotte Reiniger . Catholic Academy Schwerte, Schwerte 2004, ISBN 3-927382-48-5 .
  • Alfred Happ: Lotte Reiniger. 1899-1981; Creator of a new silhouette art . Kulturamt, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-910090-56-7 .
  • Alfred Happ: Boats - Airships - Automobiles. Means of transport in the film and silhouette work of Lotte Reinigers. In: Ursula and Otto Kirchner (eds.): Unterwegs. How and where The motif of locomotion in the paper cut. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-940061-40-9 , pp. 26-35.
  • Evamarie Blattner, Bernd Desinger, Matthias Knop, Wiebke Ratzeburg, Rada Bieberstein (eds.): Animation and avant-garde. Lotte Reiniger and the absolute film . Stadtmuseum Tübingen / Filmmuseum Düsseldorf, Tübingen / Düsseldorf 2015, ISBN 978-3-941818-27-9 .
  • Melanie Letschnig: There was once no oven. About Lotte Reiniger's fairytale silhouette films . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 2006 ( full text UB Frankfurt )
  • Helga Happ (Ed.): From the heart! Lotte Reiniger and her time in Dettenhausen: memories of the master of paper cutting. Schwäbisches Tagblatt, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-928011-60-0 .
  • Evamarie Blattner, Karlheinz Wiegmann (ed.): Lotte Reiniger: "Born with magic hands"; three silhouette sequences. University town of Tübingen, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8030-3352-9 .
  • Susanne Marschall , Rada Bieberstein: Lotte Reiniger - Dance of Shadows [audio / video carrier]: Portrait of the pioneer of artistic animation. Absolut Medien, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8488-3002-2 .
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 417 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
DVD
  • Fairy tales and fables: the classics by Lotte Reiniger. 2 DVDs with 17 films. In cooperation between DIF / DFM and Arte Germany. Part of the complete edition, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Lotte Reiniger  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthias C. Hänselmann: "I am not modern". Lotte Reiniger and the Expressionist Film . In: Kristin Eichhorn, Johannes S. Lorenzen (Ed.): Expressionism . tape 4 . Neofelis, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95808-114-7 , pp. 56-68 .
  2. ^ Philip Kemp: Reiniger, Lotte (1899-1981). In: screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved on January 7, 2018 (English): "At Christmas 1943 they reluctantly returned to Berlin to care for Reiniger's sick mother."
  3. ↑ Text section “Films in chronological order” on the DVD “Fairy tales and fables” (DVD 1 of 2), producer: www.abolutmedien.de
  4. ↑ Commemorative plaque commemorating Lotte Reiniger's 117th birthday in the Official Gazette of Dettenhausen (63rd year, number 18, May 4, 2016; PDF) Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  5. ↑ a b Julia Benner: Reiniger, Lotte . In: KinderundJugendmedien.de (2016). Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  6. ^ Papageno, Film and Music. In: Der Tagesspiegel . Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  7. ^ Youtube , Internet Movie Database (IMDb) .
  8. ↑ Permanent exhibition in Thübingen City Museum.Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  9. ↑ State Capital Düsseldorf: State Capital Düsseldorf - About the Filmmuseum. In: www.duesseldorf.de. Retrieved June 24, 2016 .
  10. ↑ June 2, 2016 - Lotte Reiniger's 117th birthday. In: Doodle archive. Retrieved January 7, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Google Doodle for Lotte Reiniger - This Berlin film pioneer came before Walt Disney. In: Stern.de . Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  12. ↑ Who was Lotte Reiniger and why is there a doodle about her? on YouTube
  13. ↑ therein including Peter Braun: Schattenspiele. Lotte Reiniger and the visual culture of the shadow around 1800 . ( Digitized version )
personal data
SURNAME Cleaner, Lotte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cleaner, Charlotte
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist, cutter, silhouette animation filmmaker, book illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Charlottenburg
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1981
Place of death Dettenhausen