Lotte Reiniger
| Lotte Reiniger | |
|---|---|
Reiniger in 1939
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| Born |
Charlotte Reiniger 2 June 1899 Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire |
| Died | 19 June 1981 (aged 82) Dettenhausen, West Germany |
| Occupation | Silhouette animator, film director |
| Years active | 1918–1979 |
| Spouse(s) | Carl Koch |
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Reiniger made more than 40 films over her career, all using her invention. Her best known films are The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) – the oldest surviving feature-length animated film, preceding Walt Disney's feature-length Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) by over ten years – and Papageno (1935), featuring music by Mozart. Reiniger is also noted for devising a predecessor to the first multiplane camera.
Lotte Reiniger was born in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin on 2 June 1899. Her parents were Carl Reiniger and Eleonore Lina Wilhelmine Rakette.
As a child, she was fascinated with the Chinese art of silhouette puppetry, even building her own puppet theatre, so that she could put on shows for her family and friends.
As a teenager, Reiniger fell in love with cinema, first with the films of Georges Méliès for their special effects, then the films of the actor and director Paul Wegener, known today for The Golem (1920). In 1915, she attended a lecture by Wegener that focused on the fantastic possibilities of animation.
Reiniger eventually convinced her parents to allow her to enroll in the acting group to which Wegener belonged, the Theatre of Max Reinhardt. She began by making costumes and props and working backstage. She started making silhouette portraits of the various actors around her, and soon she was making elaborate title cards for Wegener's films, many of which featured her silhouettes.
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