Out of the shadows

The silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger must be one of the most distinctive artists ever to work in the cinema, her signature style instantly recognisable from a randomly-chosen frame from almost any of the films she made in a six-decade-plus career. Though born in Berlin (where she made The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926, now recognised as the first fully animated feature film), she spent much of her life in Britain.

Here, she made commercials for the GPO before joining her friend Louis Hagen's Primrose Productions in the 1950s to make a series of exquisite ten-minute fairytales. These were based on well-known classics such as Aladdin, Cinderella or Thumbelina, but each was given a conceptual spin and visual treatment that made them uniquely hers.

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981)