The Kingdom of the Fairies
Le Royaume des fées | |
---|---|
Directed by | Georges Méliès |
Written by | Georges Méliès |
Produced by | Georges Méliès |
Starring | Bleuette Bernon Georges Méliès |
Release date |
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Running time | 320 meters[1] (16-17 minutes) |
Country | France |
Language | Silent |
The Kingdom of the Fairies (French: Le Royaume des fées),[2][3] initially released in the United States as Fairyland, or the Kingdom of the Fairies and in Great Britain as The Wonders of the Deep, or Kingdom of the Fairies,[1] is a 1903 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès.
Production
The film historian
The film's cast includes Georges Méliès as Prince Bel-Azor, Marguerite Thévenard as Princess Azurine, and Bleuette Bernon as the fairy Aurora.[5] Sadoul, examining a production still from the film, identified the actor Durafour as a supporting player.[5]
While most of the film was shot indoors, the nuptial cortege scene near the end was filmed outdoors in Méliès's garden, with a real horse.
Release
The Kingdom of the Fairies was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 483–498 in its catalogues.[1] (In Méliès's numbering system, films were listed and numbered according to their order of production, and each catalogue number denotes about 20 meters of film.)[6] The film was registered for American copyright at the Library of Congress on 3 September 1903.[1]
According to the Méliès scholar John Frazer, the film was "the most ambitious Star Film production to date" and "was widely distributed and heavily promoted."[7] An original film score was prepared for the film's projection in larger cities.[7] As with at least 4% of Méliès's entire output (including such films as A Trip to the Moon, The Impossible Voyage, The Rajah's Dream, and The Barber of Seville), some prints were individually hand-colored and sold at a higher price.[8]
Reception
The Kingdom of the Fairies, like Méliès's similarly spectacular films
The film theorist Jean Mitry called it "undoubtedly Méliès's best film, and in any case the most intensely poetic."[11]
Prints of the film survive in the film archives of the British Film Institute and the Library of Congress.[12]
References
- ^ ISBN 9782732437323
- ISBN 0719053951
- ISBN 0816183686
- ^ OCLC 10506429
- ^ a b Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 148
- ISBN 9781438435817
- ^ a b Frazer 1979, p. 118
- ISBN 9780813552965, retrieved 1 August 2013
- ^ Solomon 2011, p. 3
- ^ Musser, Charles (1990), History of the American Cinema: Volume 1, The Emergence of Cinema, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 299
- ^ Rosen, Miriam (1987), "Méliès, Georges", in Wakeman, John (ed.), World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, p. 756
- ^ Bennett, Carl (2011), "Le royaume des fées", The Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era, retrieved 5 February 2014
External links
- The Kingdom of the Fairies at IMDb
- The Kingdom of the Fairies is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive