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Powerful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Lotte Reiniger was only in her early 20s and at the beginning of a truly prolific career, when she made this 2-minute short film, actually an ad for German skin-care brand Nivea, which was founded only 11 years earlier. The style of animation is pretty much the same as in Reiniger's other films. It is all in black and white and looks basically like a play of shadows. There are no shades of gray in Reiniger's work. It's all either black-and-white. I personally am not the biggest fan of her style, but I also do not find it bad in anyway. Here a prince wonders how the woman of his dreams got such wonderfully soft skin. The answer to this question put a smile on my lips. But that's also the only sort-of memorable thing here. Not really recommended. Reiniger has much better work in her filmography.

Here we see Versailles-style aristocrats cavorting, and the riddle is posed: What keeps the Marquise's skin so delicately white? The answer: Nivea soap! Another reviewer said this film (or commercial) is a good way to test if someone likes the style of filming cartoons in silhouette. I would have to agree -- this gives a fair approximation of what "Prince Achmed" is like (although, of course, the full film is a much better creation).Judging two minutes, especially from 1922, is hard to do. Maybe i am rating it a bit low. Without more to go on, it is hard to be firm one way or the other. But based on future work, we can say this was definitely a sign of great things for Lotte Reiniger.

An utterly charming 2 minute cartoon from the legendary Lotte Reiniger, famed for her unique method of silhouette-animation. Here we see Versailles-style aristocrats cavorting, and the riddle is posed: What keeps the Marquise's skin so delicately white? The answer: Nivea soap... it turns out the whole thing is a commercial! It's a good intro to Reiniger's style,and a good way of testing whether you'd like to tackle The Adventures of Prince Achmed (a masterpiece,but not for all tastes).Other Reiniger cartoons are harder to get hold of.Does anyone out there know of a source?