Der höllische Kessel

Infernal Boiling Pot, The (1903)

*** (out of 4)

aka Chaudron infernal, Le

One of the director's most popular films features two demons kidnapping people and throwing them into a boiling pot of water so that the demons can steal their souls. This hand colored film is a real joy and contains all the magic and playfulness that has made the director a legend. It's easy to see why this would be one of the director's most popular films because the special effects are terrific even after all these years. When the spirits begin to fly through the air, these scenes look great as does the finale when the spirits go up in flames. The film runs just over a minute but contains plenty of nice laughs and it's a real treat for the eyes. The coloring done here is also very good and manages to add a lot to the film especially those red flames that are constantly coming up.

Georges Méliès directed this short macabre film about two demons throwing people into a boiling pot of water. Not only does the film contain all the visual trickery that is associated with the director but it also has the added bonus of being hand coloured. This adds a nice extra dimension to the look. The green demons and the red flames are particularly memorable. The best effect in the film is the image of the spirits rising into the air from the bubbling cauldron. They are nice spooky and ghostly apparitions. The film is too short to really work as a horror picture. The horror film needed more time to work on the viewers emotions than these ancient short films allowed. Still it's most definitely one of the earliest macabre films in existence, and is well worth seeing, as it will possibly take you more time to read this review than it would be to actually watch this fascinating old movie.

1903 was a terrific year for Méliès, as he created his greatest and most amazing film, Le Voyage Dans le Lune. It is STILL an amazing and cute little film that was longer and more complex than any previous film. Its use of trick cinematography, great sets and innovations make it a truly landmark film. And, while Le Chaudron Infernal is STILL an amazing film, it pales in comparison to some of these other films.

Interestingly enough, the film is in color--featuring each individual cel having been hand-painted! This, plus the cool camera tricks make this a standout film. Now as far as plots go, it's pretty weird stuff. Two demons are chucking damned souls into a cauldron and ultimately summon their spirits using incantations! There's really no more plot than that--and that's why it is a tad disappointing.

If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.

"The Infernal Cauldron" a 1903 little 2 min short film is odd a unique exercise in something bad or the cult if you want to call it in that type of way. Simple and to the point inside of a gothic and mid evil like castle three women are sacrificed by demons by being put into a boiling pot and burned. And in the aftermath their spirits form into ghost clouds! Certainly nothing compared to legendary horror classics of the 70's and 80's still it was a different and to the point concept of evil, souls, and spirits. As many watchers of old classic silent films would enjoy watching as without dialogue you the viewer form your own thoughts and feelings!

This film, "The Infernal Caldron" is a single-scene trick film by Georges Méliès, who made many such subjects, which creatively exploited cinematic techniques, mostly substitution splices and multiple-exposure photography. This film is the earliest one that I recall where the filmmaker used multiple exposures to create such indistinguishable ghostly images. I know that he had made ghosts or spirits with the technique before, such as in "A Fantastical Meal" (1900), as had other early filmmakers, but those ghosts that I've seen are distinguished as human looking—only fainter or more transparent in appearance than the living. The trick for the blurry ghost blobs in "The Infernal Caldron" was to alter the lens to go out of focus for their exposure. Méliès repeated the trick for his next film, "Apparitions" (Le Revenant)(1903).

Additionally, this particular trick film remains appealing today because it's available in a vibrant hand-colored print. The color especially aids in making the fire red, as well as bringing attention to the décor and costumes. In the film, the director plays a demon who places people in a cauldron. The out-of-focus spirits fly out of the cauldron and then transform into fireballs. There are quite a few macabre little pictures among Méliès's surviving films, but this is one of my favorites.

P.S. Many, if not most, of Méliès's films were offered to be hand-painted for exhibitors (for an additional fee). Most films from this era are lost, and many of the films that do survive and that were in color have lost their paint over time or only remain in prints that weren't colorized. An all-female staff headed by a Madame Thullier, reportedly, provided the color for all such Star Films, from 1896 or 1897 to 1910, as well as for other French studios. The coloring was done manually in an assembly-line procedure, film-by-film, frame-by-frame, with each laborer specializing in a certain color. Otherwise, some fairground exhibitors may have colored their own prints to cut costs. Later, Pathé's stencil process made coloring easier and more consistent (main source: Frazer, "Artificially Arranged Scenes").