Le diable noir

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.

"The Black Imp" of the title is man dressed from top-to-toe in a devilish black costume. He seems happy in a room with a bed, bureau, two tables and a chair. Apparently, this is a room for rent. A tenant is brought by the building's owners (or managers) as the imp disappears in the bureau. The new arrival begins to get comfortable, but the imp has other plans. Furniture begins to appear and disappear in the room. The new tenant becomes more and more frantic. Chairs appear to multiply, but he can't sit down. "The Black Imp" is happy having the room to himself, and wants to get rid of the tenant...

***** Le diable noir (1905) Georges Melies ~ Georges Melies

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

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.

Méliès fans, I salute thee, this movie is, what I consider, the granddaddy of horror movies. The filming method is very conform to Méliès style, but the narrative (which everybody knows is a pretext for the magic tricks) is slightly different. The usual fantastic aspect leaves place for a paranoia induced story about a man tormented by a black imp, pulling some evil tricks on him, screwing up with his perception. Multiplication of chairs, furniture mysteriously changing place around the room...the poor man dosen't know what's going on until he finds out about the imp. Ensues a great fight between the man (armed with his broom) and the imp, which is continuing to use his mystical powers to mess around with the sleeper.

Very good movie for those interested in the genesis of horror films.