Cut Out to be a Hero: Prince Achmedat The Kino
EBM HUMPHREYS
The oldest surviving feature-length animation, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, was recently shown at Kino-Teatr – and you will want to watch it and watch again. (For the geeks: there were two Argentinian animated features, by one Quirino Cristiani, which were earlier, but no known copies survive). And as if a film that has lasted a century (and thanks to the internet, is now becoming eternal) was not enough to earn her place in film history, Lotte Reiniger, the director, was also one of the first to try to represent gay affection on screen by portraying a kiss between the Emperor and his favourite, ‘Ping Pong’ (it was censored).
Alongside fellow animators Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch and her husband-and- cinematographer Carl Koch, Reiniger and her small team were financed by Berliner banker Louis Hagen. He gave them studio space in an attic in his vegetable garden, according to prolific film producer Donald P. Borchers, who is also curator of an extensive Youtube B-movie library – watch the film there. This screening, at Kino-Teatr a couple of weeks ago, was perfectly accompanied by the also-prolific Mike Hatchard. His mesmerising accompaniment was an hour and a half’s pure continuous improvisation, with subtle and clever, melodically-appropriate changes of style depending on whether the film’s action was taking place in China, Africa, Persia, or somewhere in between. It made for a unique experience.
When you witness the intricacy of the paper designs, which do justice to the imperial ornamentation of their settings, you won’t be surprised that it took them three years to make. But would you believe they shot twenty-four frames per second? At eighty-one minutes, that’s over one hundred and sixteen thousand frames – some of which contain thirty-two people (I counted).
Before I run out of space to tell you what the film is about – does it matter? It’s a beautiful tapestry of classic Arabian fairytales, woven into an epic containing every theme you could wish for: love, death, wickedness, redemption; kings, sorcerers, demons, nymphs, princesses, birds, snakes and an infamous magic lamp complete with genie – and if that’s not enough for you, a fantastical flying horse.
But the real magic is not so much in the plot, but in the skilful expressiveness of these strictly two-dimensional, silhouette-only characters. The tilt of hand under a chin, the frequent crumpling under stress, not to mention the special effects used for landscapes and magic (method withheld to preserve the mystery), imbue the movie with an incredible life. It’s one ‘old’ artwork that reminds us that the sheer power of human creativity is as impactful as, or more so than, any big budget or A-list actor.
P.S. If anybody that talented, determined and imaginative is around today, I have a shed.
Kino: kino-teatr.co.uk YouTube: youtube.com/watchv=_RlnylV5lQk&list=RD_RlnylV5lQk&start_radio=1&t=11s
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