In collaboration with Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek – Prof. Martin Koerber and Daniel Meiller –, DIASTOR has restored the German silhouette film Der Märchenwald – Ein Schattenspiel [The Fairy Tale Woods – A Shadow Play]. The film was directed by Otto Linnekogel and produced in Germany in 1919/1920, several years before Lotte Reiniger’s famous silhouette film Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (GER 1926). In contrast to Lotte Reiniger’s animated film, Der Märchenwald is a live-action silhouette film with actors playing on a backlit stage.

Tinted frame from “Der Märchenwald – Ein Schattenspiel”

At DIASTOR partner cinegrell postproduction the tinted nitrate print was scanned on the ARRISCAN in 4K and then color graded based on color references produced photographically from the nitrate print by a calibrated camera set-up. The case study was supervised by DIASTOR senior researcher Dr. Claudy Op den Kamp.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world-renowned silent film festival held annually in Pordenone, Italy, will show the newly restored version in October 2015. The screening will be connected to a talk on the digital reconstruction of early applied colors, given by DIASTOR manager Prof. Dr. Barbara Flueckiger and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ruedel, professor at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft in Berlin.

Scanner operator Nicole Allemann inspecting the nitrate print at DIASTOR partner cinegrell postproduction’s facility in Zurich.