El diablo en el convento

Black Imp, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

aka Le Diable noir

Also known as THE BLACK DEVIL, this here is another high point for director Melies. In the film a man checks into a hotel for some rest not knowing that he's about to be haunted by a demon living in the room. It starts off simple as the man can't seem to be able to hang his coat up but quickly turns to a chair disappearing below him and eventually the demon pops out for a quick scare. This is yet another film that Melies is best remembered for and it's funny to see how many times he actually did this story. There's no question he was a fan of checking in somewhere only to be haunted as it's a subject he'd use many times throughout his long career. The special effects with all the chairs and furniture are easy to spot but that really doesn't take away anything from the film because it's just so charming. You can't help but have a smile on your face as one item disappears after another and the man grows crazier and crazier.

This is another fun and inventive film from director Georges Méliès. Like many of his others, it's film that is basically a means for Méliès to display his skills with film trickery. Also, like many of his films he demonstrates his skills within an imaginative setting, so the movie retains a great deal of charm. The film depicts the actions of a devilish imp, who has invaded an apartment. He disappears and reappears all over the room at will. When a poor unfortunate man enters the scene, the imp torments him with his magical mischief. This involves furniture moving at will all over the room, with a clever sequence involving multiplying chairs. The main trick that Méliès uses in Le Diable Noir is stop-motion photography and it's only fair to say that he uses it very well. It's been put together with such care that it's not all that easy to notice when the jump-cut has been made. Like many of the directors other works the overall feel of the film is playful as opposed to menacing. Definitely a nice little flick to watch if you are interested in the very earliest films ever made.

Director Georges Méliès was the greatest film maker of his day. Unlike the films of Lumiere and Edison, his films told complex stories and had a lot of very, very funny and amazing stunts--probably due to his earlier career as a magician.

In this short film, a devil is shown bounding about an apartment--appearing and disappearing at will. Soon, a man enters and is soon tortured by the imp. First, furniture appears and disappears--chasing the man around his apartment. Then, when the devil appears, the man chases him and tries to hit him, but he keeps appearing and disappearing and it soon becomes obvious there is nothing he can do to stop him! This film is one stop-motion camera trick after another and is super high-paced and funny. Despite its age, it's well worth seeing.

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.

This amusing Méliès feature has several of the kind of visual effects that made him famous, and most of them work quite well. The story starts when "The Black Imp" plays a series of practical jokes on an unwary traveler, and it then follows the battle of wits that ensues. The action that follows uses quite a few props, most of them simple everyday objects used in humorous and sometimes creative ways. Most of the camera tricks are done with skill, and the movie thus gets plenty of mileage out of some simple material. Most of it is fun to watch, and it's a good display of skill with the camera. It's definitely worth seeing if you have any interest in these earliest movies.

A man rents a room at an inn only to find that a mischievous imp wants the room for himself

This is a film by early film maker Georges Melies the man who single handedly effectively invented cinema special effects . Watching this short film that has a running time of less than four minutes it helps if you realise beforehand that despite having a title like THE BLACK IMP you're not going to be watching any type of horror film but instead is a slapstick comedy

The selling point of course are the effects achieved by jump cut replacement photography which fellow commentator and the much missed F Gwynplain MacIntyre explains was still being used in film and television in the 1960s and 70s

That said you have to be slightly forgiving when watching this short . Once you know how the special effects are done the film loses some of its magic . Also the whimsy and unrepentant slapstick sense of humour is rather overdone in the eyes of a perhaps more sophisticated audience so you have to watch it with a 1905 mentality in order to get the full benefit