'The Star of Bethlehem' tells the Christmas story in the style of medieval nativity plays. The Three Wise Men from the East follow the star to Bethlehem, but hostile spirits try to stop them on their journey. The King Herod fears the child in the manger, and seeks to kill it, but an angel prevents his evil intentions. The film is an example of how Lotte Reiniger has her silhouette technique enriched by coloured acetate films. The backgrounds have the vibrancy of coloured stained glass windows.
Similar titles
Reviews
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. Some people only review one film. When it just one review you cant trust them no matter what their opinion may be. I have reviewed over 200 Holiday films. i have no agenda This animated short tells the story of the birth of Jesus and the events that surrounded his birth. Well made and not insulting to anybody. If your looking for a well made Christmas cartoon that is about the birth of Jesus then watch this one. It is available to stream for free.
"Star of Bethlehem" (no article), A Primrose Production, was released in England by Archway in February, 1957. It ran 18 minutes. Publicity for the movie proclaimed that it marked "the first time Lotte Reiniger has worked in colour (sic)." Reiniger is credited with "Design". She and her husband, Carl Koch, are credited as "Animators". The director was Vivian Milroy; the film editor, Reg Spragg; music was composed by Peter Gellhorn. And there was a spoken commentary by Anthony Jacobs. Producers Louis Hagen and Richard Kaplan sold the short to Cathedral Films in the USA. I've not seen the U.S. version, but I doubt that it included "Reiniger's dramatically grotesque devils that vividly evoke medieval German illustrations."
Her first job was doing cut-out titles for Paul Wegener's Pied Piper of Hamlin. The Start of Bethlehem was probably her's, made when she was about 21 or 22 in Germany. On Achemed she was using a double plane animation stand (long before Disney). She and her husband Carl Koch (who is credited on Star of Bethlehem) built all their own equipment. She moved, in the 1950's and 60's to an Artists Colony in the UK, run by the owner of Primrose Productions who colorized some of her older films and distributed them. Her independent works were later for the BBC and NFBC. Cathedral probably got this from Primrose, who probably ended up with all her extant holdings after her death. There may be leads to this in her book "Shadow Theater and Shadow Films" which, I think, has a filmography.
This may be the 1921 "Stern von Bethlehem" by Lotte Reininger. Many years ago, I picked this up on VHS. I have subsequently seen "The Adventures of Prince Achmed", and have realized that this must be by the same artists. The print on my tape was awful, but once you got past the credits, it settled down. If you click on the credited names in this website, Lotte Reininger's name comes up, referring to the Aladdin sequence in "Achmed", which I have heard was re-cut to stand alone. I think the "direction" for this version refers only to the spoken narrative, nicely done, by the way, but sometimes clumsily written. It would be nice of IMDb to tie Reininger's work together under her name. Of course, I may be completely wrong! I am hoping that this is the "Star of Bethlehem (and three Holiday favorites)" on Amazon from Westwood Entertainment. Any Reininger scholars out there?
Top Streaming Movies
