 Certificate
1926
Toned + Tinted
Germany
Language(s): English
Published/distributed by BFI
ISBN/EAN: 5035673005231
Ratio 1.33:1
Region 2
Price:
£19.99
(Including VAT at 17.5%)
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Adventures of Prince Achmed, The Reiniger, Lotte
'A masterpiece' Jean Renoir
Hailed as the first full-length animated film in the history of cinema, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which premiered in Germany in 1926, is an astonishing labour of love, which took three years and 300,000 camera shots to complete.
Reiniger - celebrated pioneer of silhouette animation - created all the characters and cut out every single silhouette herself, colour-tinting the frames by hand. Taking the ancient art of shadow-plays, as perfected in China and Indonesia, she adapted it brilliantly for the cinema.
Based on tales from The Arabian Nights, the story tells of a wicked sorcerer who lures Prince Achmed onto a magical flying horse and sends him off on a flight to his death. The Prince foils the magician's plan, however, and flies headlong into a series of adventures - joining forces with Aladdin, doing battle with assorted ogres, monsters and spirits, and falling in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu.
This enchanting, hand-crafted film has been superbly restored, with a new recording of the original magnificent orchestral score.
Seventy-five years on, The Adventures of Prince Achmed still stands as one of the great classics of animation - witty, lively, delicate, inventive, stirring and romantic.
Extras* Options for subtitles or voiceover
* 60-minute documentary on Reiniger.
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