L'Auberge ensorcelée

Bewitched Inn, The (1897)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka L'Auberge ensorcelee

Melies plays a man who shows up at his motel room where ghostly things start happening right from the start. We get to witness all sorts of magic tricks throughout this film including his clothes flying through the air, his boots walking off and of course a scene where he goes to sit in a chair only to have the chair move on him. The special effects are, needless to say, terrific and it's amazing at how well they hold up today. The magic Melies brings to the screen is certainly something very special and this film contains plenty of laughs to keep you entertained. The highlight of the film has to be the exploding candle.

Among the films of Georges Méliès available today, this is the first to feature one of the cinema magician's most common trick film formulas--that of the weary traveler being tormented in his hotel room. Méliès's earlier films "A Terrible Night" (Une nuit terrible) and "A Nightmare" (Le cauchemar) (both 1896) established the outlines of a man's rest being interrupted, but here is the earliest available instance where he is at an inn, and the entire room seems to conspire against his restful night's sleep.

This was done by both theatrical and cinematic tricks. For instance, a splice of the filmstrip made a chair disappear as he tries to sit down, while his boots are pulled away on strings. These movements, appearances and disappearances of his clothing and the room's furniture end up driving the man to run out of the room in terror. Additionally, it shouldn't be overlooked how much Méliès's own performances in front of the camera added to the amusement of these productions.

This weary traveler at an inn genre was employed again in such Méliès's films as "Going to Bed Under Difficulties" (1900), "The Inn Where No Man Rests" (1903) and "The Black Imp" (1905) with variations on this theme in "A Roadside Inn" (1906) and "The Diabolic Tenant" (1909). Other filmmakers were quick to imitate and improve upon these films, as well, including Edwin S. Porter's "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend" (1906) and J. Stuart Blackton's "The Haunted Hotel" (1907).

An early Melies movie, and all the tricks must have seemed fantastical to audiences of the day. Today, it quickly grows repetitive.

A traveller experiences strange paranormal activity in a room at an inn where he stops to stay the night. Clothes fly around, a chair vanishes and his boots walk off; all to the consternation of the spooked out man.

This little comic short from Georges Méliès is a very early showcase for his cinematic trickery and visual invention. Just as significantly it illustrates his sense of humour. Méliès made many funny films which incredibly are still amusing even now, over a century down the line. The effects remain impressive even though we all know how they are done. There is always a loving care in Méliès work. This one is no exception and shows why he is the first cinematic genius.

L'AUBERGE ENSORCELE is probably Melies' most imitated single film: a traveler enters a hotel room and things don't just go wrong: they go terribly pear-shaped as beds vanish and reappear, boots walk off and pants fly away in a side-splitting combination of stage and film magic. I have seen variations from Edison, Booth, Gaumont and Melies redid this at least three times in increasingly elaborate variations. Still, there's always tremendous fun in seeing something done for the first time and Melies' sense of fun is always great to see.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.