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1901: More Masterpieces from Méliès
Georges Méliès' film-making feats went from strength to strength in the early years of the 20th Century. Following groundbreaking early epics such as Cendrillon, L'Affaire Dreyfus, (both 1899) and Le Rêve de Noël (1900), the hard-working Méliès made a further two films of note in 1901. The first was Barbe-Bleue, cinema's first recounting of the Bluebeard legend. Based on a Jacques Offenbach operetta, and featuring Méliès' regular co-star Jeanne d'Alcy, it tells the story of Bluebeard's eighth wife, who is handed a key by her new husband (played by Méliès, who also wrote, directed, edited, and designed the sets) with the proviso that she must not use it to open one particular door. Wifey, of course, prompted by an impish demon, can not resist, and is horrified to discover Bluebeard's seven former wives hanging from a beam in the room. A surreal dream sequence follows, in which the hapless wife is tormented by the spirits of the former wives, and a number of giant dancing keys. Aided by a fairy godmother and the intervention of a knight in shining armour, our heroine manages to avoid the fate of her predecessors, and Bluebeard suffers a grisly death: run through by the hero's sword and pinned to a post. The film lasted nine minutes, and was Méliès' first attempt at a narrative structure that is still recognisable as such today.
Méliès' second notable film of 1901 was Le Petit chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood). Starring Rachel Gillet, and based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, the story was told in twelve tableaux and was filled with numerous trick effects and dissolves. [ADD]
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