Barbe-bleue

Georges Melies writes, directs and stars in his retelling of the Charles Perrault classic BLUEBEARD. Melies stars as the title character Bluebeard who is looking for his eighth wife. The previous seven have died under mysterious circumstances. When he finds his wife (Jeanne d'Alcy who interestingly later married Melies in real life until his death in 1938) he goes off on a journey, but leaves the key to the castle with the new wife. In turn she finds the dirty secret Bluebeard has been hiding and he returns to exact some revenge.

When first watching the film in the 1st act you might be thinking this is a comedy, but when the 2nd act opens you should be aware that the tone of the film is horror. The music to the version I watched was great as it added joy, tension and terror when needed. The sets are good as well as they never seem to get boring or over used. In the public domain so should be easy to find.

Bluebeard (1901)

aka Barbe-bleue

** 1/2 (out of 4)

An interesting if not totally successful film from Georges Melies. After seven wives have mysterious died, Bluebeard holds a contest to pick his eighth wife. Things are going as planned until the ghosts of the seven previous wives show up. This here is certainly a horror film from start to finish but it's a shame the film gets off to such a weak start. The ending, with the wives returning, is very well done.

In early 2008 a box set with over 170 Meiles films will be released and it's certainly long overdue.

Georges Méliès Bluebeard is one of the earliest examples of narrative film-making. It is a dry run for Méliès later hugely influential A Trip to the Moon. Up until this point in time cinema was the preserve of visual trickery and pure realist reproduction. No one had really worked out how to tell stories via this new medium. It was left to the ultimate cinematic innovator Méliès to start thinking of film as a narrative form. And with this little movie we have a definite story; one which is also replete with the director's famed visual invention. It's one of the first times that he utilised his special effects into an actual story. There are several different sets, all of which have detailed design. The story itself is about the evil character Bluebeard. It's a much more macabre subject than Méliès more common fantasy based tales. This one still has those elements too but also has darker, more nightmarish content. In its most memorable moment, for instance, the heroine enters a secret room where the dead bodies of Bluebeard's seven previous wives hang. It's quite striking and one of the earliest examples of horror cinema. The whole fantasy dream sequence is overall very effective with a sprite that leaps out of a book, ghostly apparitions and giant dancing keys. It's an entertaining film whose main historical importance is that it is one of the very first twitches of narrative cinema.

For 1901, this is a completely extraordinary film. No other film director or producer of the time could even come close to equaling the complexity and watchability of his films. Think about it--in 1901 when this film was made, almost all films were only about a minute long (more or less) and almost all of them were just ordinary films featuring ordinary activities (such as babies crying, waterfalls or street scenes). There was absolutely no writing, no plot and no acting as we came to know it. Yet, at the same time we have films like BLUEBEARD that have wonderful sets (kind of kitchy compared to today--I really think they are cute and charming), acting and scripts! Plus, after about the first half of this film, you'll see the absolute best trick cinematography of the era!! When the little imp jumps in and out of the book, the horrific scene of the seven dead wives hanging in the basement and the amazing not to be missed final scene you realize that for his time, Méliès was an absolute genius and tremendous innovator. The only negative at all about this film was the lack of inter-title cards--something that you can't blame him for since they hadn't yet come into vogue. Brilliant and every bit as wonderful as his 1902 breakout film Le Voyage dans le Lune.

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.

Arguably, the first bona-fide horror film ever made. The scene where the wife goes to the cellar and finds the hanged bodies of the previous wives is genuinely chilling, and the eerie dream scene is very well done.

There is really no exaggerating of Georges Méliès' importance in the history of cinema, inventor of special effects, an early expressionist before expressionism even officially existed, a wizard creator of magical worlds, a canny surrealist a full two decades before surrealism was even born, a trickster and relentless comedian that knows no bounds: more than an innovator, Méliès is a genius.