Bread and Bhutta

Last night I went to the Pitt Rivers, where the first of an event funded by ASPIRE Innovation fund was taking place. Similar style to the Ashmolean open nights, but this felt more personal.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, by Lotte Reiniger, was shown with a live film score by band Flights of Helios.

I had only heard Flights of Helios once before, and that was at a gig where I left early in a bad mood due to an angry looking blister. Having only heard five minutes in wincing pain I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I loved it. The score was modern, atmospheric, sometimes Arabian, sometimes Germanic, and plenty of tension building and quieter moments too. It was completely immersive, watching the plights of Prince Achmed in perfect cut out paper silhouettes, combined with live sound. My friend I went to see it with enjoyed the music, but wanted some more traditional sounds to go with the early cinema feel. I’m sure another band could have taken it in that direction and it would have been equally effective,  but I thought the modern drama of the music brought a new vibrancy to the film.

Lotte Reiniger was a German filmmaker who did one of the first animated feature films in 1926. She made the characters cut out of paper, and then animated it by using the arduous method of positioning the figures fractionally differently for each frame. What really struck me about the film is the craftsmanship and skill behind it - it took Lotte Reiniger three years to complete. Supposedly while her partner would get frustrated and storm and rage around the house, Lotte would get quieter and quieter, and more immersed in her work. She was a perfectionist, which shows in each curve of Prince Achmed’s fingers.

I am not a perfectionist. It is a skill I would like to have. Instead I suffer from a form of anxiety, which at its worst will build up a huge fear of not being able to do something, causing me to do lack lustre job because I’ve left it too late and rushed it. It has been known to manifest into physical illness and memorably in January, constant nausea. I find it hard to talk about, this fear. It’s so much part of me, it’s difficult to uproot.

 .

It has been a long, slow journey for me to realise there is no quick fix for most things.

Lotte Reiniger knew the skills of dedication and perseverance, and I’m learning to appreciate them too. To see new possibilities as exciting, not dread the work needed to encompass them. I am a cautious optimist :)