The Adventures of Prince Achmed
with a live piano performance and original score by Donald Sosin
Thursday October 29, 6:30 PM
$10/$7 for members. For tickets, click here.
In conjunction with the exhibition Slash: Paper Under the Knife, MAD presents The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which interprets the tale of 1001 Nights with elegant, dream-like, and classic paper-cut animation. Directed by German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger (1899-1989), one of the most influential and revered animators in film history, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the first ever animated feature film. Pianist and composer Donald Sosin will accompany this silent film with his original score, giving museum visitors a spectacular visual and audio experience.
About The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The Adventures of Prince Achmed tells the story of an evil sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse that sends the prince off on a flight to his death. Yet the prince foils the magician’s plan and soars headlong into a series of wondrous exciting adventures. Prince Achmed joins forces with Aladdin and the Witch of the Fiery Mountains, fights the sorcerer's army of monsters and demons, and falls in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu. Since its smashing premier in 1926, this rare film has been successfully shown in nearly every country around the globe.
Lotte Reiniger brought a unique perspective to the look of traditional characters. She used intricate details to show off extremely delicate filigree cutting work. Reiniger’s talent also showed the way in which shapes work together, forming optical illusions. This creates a fantastical universe in which objects turn into demons, and sorcerers’ shapes shift in a way only possible in silhouette. Human gestures are wonderfully underplayed which endows some of the scenes with an ethereal, erotic quality.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique, pioneered by Reiniger herself, which involved silhouette cutouts photographed in front of illuminated glass.
About Donald Sosin
Donald Sosin has been enthralling audiences in the US and Europe with his silent film music for over thirty years. Born in 1951, he grew up in Rye, NY, and Munich. He studied piano with Kyriena Siloti, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University, studying composition with William Albright and Jack Beeson. He was the resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art in the late 70's, and returns there frequently as a guest pianist. He performs each October at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, each July at Bologna's Cinema Ritrovato, and appears regularly at major film festivals including New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Telluride, TriBeCa, and Port Townsend. He is the resident pianist for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, BAM and the Museum of Moving Image, and has appeared at other film repertory house and archives include the Pacific Film Archives’ Asian Film Festival, the Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, Harvard Film Archives, the National Gallery, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Berlin Filmmuseum, MASS MoCA, and The Film Forum.