The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

Review #1323: The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

Cast: 
Directed by Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch.

Review: 
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (known as Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in its native country of Germany) is a magnificent achievement. It endures as the oldest surviving feature animated film in existence, surviving where two prior Argentian features (El Apóstol and Sin dejar rastros) from Quirino Cristiani had not. This survived despite the fact the original nitrate print (with color) had been lost. The film was restored by German and British archivists through the Desmet Method to restore the film and its colors from a black-and-white print. The previous years of the 20th century saw an evolution in terms of what animation could do to begin with, starting from 1906 with Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, a three minute film that showed hand-drawn scenes on a chalkboard done by J. Stuart Blackton. In any case, it is still remarkable to make a film like this, done with silhouette marionette being photographed movement by movement, with Reiniger describing them as being "cut out of black cardboard and thin lead, every limb being cut separately and joined with wire hinges." The backgrounds were also cut out with scissors from transparent paper. This film was in production for three years, with roughly 96,000 frame-by frame stills being utilized in the film. One gets the feeling of seeing shadow puppets when first viewing the film, but do not forget that this she is doing all of this one frame at a time, with no live-action manipulating. For a film that is over nine decades old, that is quite the achievement. The film is based of elements from One Thousand and One Nights, combining "Aladdin" and "The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Perī-Bānū". There were numerous avant-garde animators that helped work on the film, such as Walter Ruttmann (who also directed avant-garde fare such as Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis), Berthold Bartosch (who went on to do work such as The Idea), and Carl Koch (Reiniger's husband and occasional assistant to Jean Renoir). Each helped with various sequences, such as help with ocean waves and the skies with cutouts from sand and soap, while wax was being used to convey the flying horse and various magic transformations. One is in awe fairly quickly from the craftsmanship displayed in each act, but I think the greatest highlight is the water sequence. In the film, the Princess and the maidens fly with feathered garmets to a stream for a bath. The movements made in that part are already quite nice, but it is the ripples and shimmer of the water surface that seal the deal, since it looks quite realistic with detail. The characters themselves all look fairly distinct, where one can figure out what is going on without needing more detail or even voices for a film that displays usually two colors: the background color and black for the silhouettes. You need films like this to remind oneself of what it means to tell a story in one's own vision, whether with or without actors or even a considerable budget. One is amazed at what one can tell in 65 minutes from cut-outs and occasional title cards (whether in German or another language), such as flying horses, or wizard battles, which proves to be an excellent climax of images (along with a modern recreation of the music) that inspires curiosity just as much as the other images do. On the whole, this is an easy film to recommend, one with plenty of imagination and wonder that rewards its viewer with diverting entertainment that serves its decade with pleasure and amazement.

Next Review - Another film from 1926, with 3 Bad Men.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.