Although transitioning between scenes using a dissolve was already clearly established and used (numerous times) by the likes of Georges Méliès in Cendrillon / Cinderella(1900), this film used a more primitive version of it for a different effect – by letting the first shot slip out of focus and the second one back into focus, it visually communicated waking up from a dream state. Film’s visual vocabulary increases! The technique also works in relation to the story, visually contrasting the two similar shots for comic effect.
(The film was remade by Ferdinand Zecca in 1901 as Rêve et réalité / Dream and Reality.)
This is Méliès’ most ambitious film up until then. Based on the 1697 fairy tale by Charles Perrault, the film consisted of six elaborate sets, a large cast of extras and his usual special effects via the substitution splice and multiple exposure, in addition to using a dissolve to transition between scenes (one of the earliest uses of the technique). It was shot in his “glass house” studio in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
The visual style is heavily influenced by Gustav Doré’s illustrations of the fairy tale. What sets the adaptation apart from others is the upbeat, optimistic tone throughout. Other than rags to indicate a lower status, the film never establishes Cinderella’s woes or abuse by her stepfamily. The most dramatic thing to happen to her is transforming back to her rags during the ball – and even then the partygoers quickly return to their revelry and the scene ends on a whimsical note. The ending is altered slightly to be more jubilant as well: after trying on the slipper, she once more summons her fairy godmother who conjures up a fancy dress before disappearing. It is possible that Méliès was influenced by a pantomime performed at the Théâtre de la Galerie-Vivienne in 1896.
Art by: Gustav Doré.
The film is broken down into six scenes:
1. The kitchen, where Cinderella is left behind and her fairy godmother appears to ready her for the ball. 2. The ballroom, where Cinderella dances with the prince until the clock strikes midnight, a gnome appears to torment her and her fairy godmother returns to undo her spell. 3. The living room, where Cinderella has a nightmare about clocks, from which her sisters wake her as the prince enters with the slipper. 4. The exterior of a church, where the happy couple and royalty enter and a crowd of girls proceed to dance. 5. A stylized shot of the dancers, Cinderella and the prince, and the fairy godmother watching over all of them. 6. Another stylized shot of a crowd and Cinderella and the prince in a carriage pulled by swans, the reins in the fairy godmother’s hands.
(It’s worth noting that there is no dissolve between scenes four and five but the set itself moves to reveal a new one.)
The color at the beginning of the film was thanks to the workers at Vitagraph (who had the rights for U.S. distribution) who hand-tinted it frame by frame. The process caused severe eye strain for the workers and the practice was discontinued.
Méliès would adapt the fairy tale again in 1912 as Cendrillon ou la Pantoufle merveilleuse / Cinderella or The Glass Slipper.
IMDb contributors (n.d. b). Cinderella or The Glass Slipper (1912). [online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132026/ [Accessed: 9 January 2022].
It is also known as The Haunted Castle and The Devil’s Castle – however, it should not be confused with Méliès’ remake Le château hanté / The Haunted Castle (1897). It is also possible that George Albert Smith made a version of the film in 1897, but as no copies exist, it is likely that it was merely misattributed to him.
The film continues to showcase Méliès’ fascination with the fantastical and mastery of special effects, this time combining the two into a narrative. The first third establishes the location as otherworldly: a bat appears and transforms into the devil who then proceeds to conjure objects and creatures. The scene returns to normalcy by the time two men arrive. One of them is quickly scared off by the devil’s assistant and the other remains to endure further pranks and apparitions. In the end, he confronts the villain with a crucifix.
By most accounts, it is considered the first horror film and a strong case can be made for it being the first vampire film. Although the antagonist is the devil, he possesses attributes associated with vampire lore: he transforms from a bat to human, summons demonic brides and other creatures who serve him (displaying mesmeric control), and is ultimately banished with a cross.
(Note: Due to the 1896 version being lost media, the video here is a remake by Alice Guy from 1900. It is often incorrectly cited as the 1896 original.)
Alice Guy was born in Paris on July 1, 1874, and began her career as a secretary for inventor and industrialist Léon Gaumont in 1894. She directed La Fée aux Choux as a means of demonstrating the possibilities of the camera manufactured by Gaumont, in the process not only producing quite possibly the first fantasy film but becoming the first female film director!
The film was based on a French children’s tale that boys are born in cabbages and girls in roses (a cabbage supposedly resembling a baby’s head). It was quite long for its time, clocking at 1 minute! Guy was soon promoted to the company’s head of motion picture production and directed most of their films until 1905. She not only experimented with cinematic techniques (running film backward, double exposure, etc.) but also used Gaumont’s Chronophone to produce around 100 “sound” films between 1906 and 1907.
Over time, a lot of her accomplishments were forgotten or attributed to her male colleagues. Today only a few of films she produced remain.
Noble P. et al. (2013). ‘Languages of love: 10 unusual terms of endearment’, BBC News, 30 May. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22699938 [Accessed: 22 December 2021].
Whereas most films at the time were documentaries that chronicled small events (a dance, waves crashing, workers leaving a factory, etc.), L’Arroseur Arrosé (also known as Le Jardinier / The Gardener) presented a complete and self-contained narrative – an early instance of scripted storytelling! The story is circular: we see the gardener in his normal environment, this normality is disrupted by the boy who steps into the frame, and upon the boy being punished for his prank and banished from the screen, a return to normality. The comedy works due to the audience seeing events from an omniscient point-of-view, thus being privy to events unaware to the gardener and anticipating the outcome.
Lumière claimed that film was based on a prank played by his younger brother Édouard on the family gardener François Clerc; however evidence points to him being possibly influenced by a popular comic strip gag that first appeared in Le Chat Noir on July 4, 1885, titled Arrosage public (art: Uzès, the pseudonym of Achille Lemot). Other iterations include Ein Bubenstreich in the October 15, 1886, issue of Fliegende Blätter (art: Hans Schließmann) and the oft-cited L’Arroseur from a 1887 publication by Quantin (art: Hermann Vogel). All closely depict the events from the film. It is not entirely impossible that Édouard, influenced by the comic strip, re-created the scene in real-life and inspired his older brother. Depending on what is to be believed, L’Arroseur Arrosé may be considered the first instance of film adaptation.
Imagerie artistique de la Maison Quantin, Série 4, Planche n°4, 1887 (art: Hermann Vogel).
As copyright law had not yet been defined for this emerging medium, competing filmmakers would often re-shoot popular films and present to audiences as their own. Remakes of this picture include A Surrey Garden (1896; Birt Acres), The Bad Boy and the Gardener (1896; James H. White), L’Arroseur (1896; Georges Méliès), L’Arroseur Arrosé (1897; Alice Guy), A Practical Joke (1898; George Albert Smith). François Truffaut included a homage to it in Les Mistons (1958).
Poster by Marcellin Auzolle.
Its poster was illustrated by Marcellin Auzolle and is the first one designed to promote an individual film (prior emphasis lay on technological novelty of shows).
Bibliography
Burns, P. T. (2010). ‘Chapter Fifteen 1895-1900’, The History of the Discovery of Cinematography. Available at: http://www.precinemahistory.net/1895.htm [Accessed: 18 December 2021].
IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Tables Turned on the Gardener (1895)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000014/ [Accessed: 18 December 2021].
When it comes to the early years of cinema, it is difficult to attribute “firsts” with absolute certainty, largely due to lost records, lost media, rumors and general misconceptions made popular. Likewise, while it is generally accepted that the first public screening of films was by the Lumière brothers, they were preceded by two German brothers, Max and Emil Skladanowsky, by almost two months.
On November 1, 1895, they screened their Wintergartenprogramm to a paying audience at the Berlin Wintergarten Varieté. The full program consisted of: Italienischer Bauerntanz Komisches Reck Das Boxende Känguruh Jongleur Akrobatisches Potpurri Kamarinskaja Serpentintanz Ringkämpfer Apotheose
The films were projected using Max Skladanowsky’s Bioscop dual projector. As the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe was superior to the Bioscop, the Skladanowsky brothers soon fell into obscurity.
One of the more memorable shorts in the program was Das Boxende Känguruh, as evident by Birt Acres’ “remake” the following year, The Boxing Kangaroo (1896). It was not uncommon for early filmmakers to replicate popular films. Even in the Skladanowsky brothers’ program, there is a version of the Serpentine Dance and the Lumière brothers would screen Les Forgerons, a variation of Blacksmith Scene.
Bibliography
Blankenship, J. (2012). ‘1 November 1895: Premiere of Wintergarten Program Highlights Transitional Nature of Early Film Technology’.In: Kapczynski, J. M. & Richardson, M. D. (ed.) A New History of German Cinema. New York: Camden House.
IMDb contributors (n.d. a). ‘Das boxende Känguruh (1895)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000018/ [Accessed: 4 December 2021].
Reel Lessons 