Le royaume des fées

This is another epic on the scale of Melies' earlier Voyage to the Moon but which lacks the iconic images of that film which is perhaps why it is now relatively unknown. Without a doubt it is every bit as interesting and fantastic as Voyage with elaborate sets and costumes and typically exuberant performances from the actors. One thing about Melies' films is that everyone up there on the screen looks like they're having a whale of a time - a fact which adds to the viewers' enjoyment. The story is a typical fairy tale with a noble prince braving all manner of obstacles to save his beloved from the clutches of a wicked witch. The acting is of the 'hands in the air to express surprise/shock/fear' variety, but in this case that just adds to the enjoyment.

Following on the heels of his hugely important A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès directed this feature. Like its predecessor it was another narrative film. It was one of several that the director made that fell into the fairy tale category. A princess is abducted by a witch and a gallant prince embarks on quest to save her. His adventure takes him to the ocean floor where he encounters fairies from the court of Neptune and is subsequently taken on a journey inside a giant whale. He then battles the witch and her minions in the final conflict.

There is a lot of great imagery here and it exists in a great colour tinted print. The fantastical underwater world is particularly nice. There are a lot of different sets for a film of this age. Many of them are quite elaborate and detailed. Like other films of the time it has no inter-titles, so it wouldn't be very easy knowing exactly what is going on without a narrator. Fortunately there are versions of this with a voice-over, which was how the feature was meant to be presented in any case. But even without this it is consistently very interesting visually and is a great little fantasy adventure. Méliès was easily the most important director of the earliest years of cinema and this feature quite clearly indicates why.

Georges Méliès was a marvelous filmmaker who brought movies many innovations and tricks. However, over time his films have become mostly forgotten and many seem very outdated and quaint today. But, if you are patient, they are most enjoyable when you realize how different and innovative they were for the turn of the century. And, a few, like "Fairyland" are true classics.

When the story begins, some prince (Georges Méliès) becomes engaged to a princess. But an evil witch sneaks into the palace with her imps and kidnaps the woman. So it's up to the prince to go on a grand adventure to find his betrothed and teach the wicked witch a lesson. To help him are some fairies and even King Neptune!

This is a cute and clever movie...made better by some gorgeous hand-painted cels. The overall effect is really nice and the 17 minute story seems more like a full-length movie (which it was back in 1903) than a quick short film. Well worth seeing and among the filmmaker's best.

There's a lot of Gilliam and Kubrick to be found in Georges Melies fifteen minute phantasmagoria epic A Kingdom of the Faires made 30 an 40 years before they were born. Melies pulls out all the stops with this wildly color tinted happily ever after nightmare featuring hallucinogenic compositions and early experimentation with miniatures and fish tanks between camera and set.

A King insults a witch who exacts revenge by abducting the princess to a far off lair. The Prince pursues, has to undergo a series of challenges including a stop in Atlantis but ultimately vanquishes the witch with enormous assistance from the good fairy Aurora by drowning her.

Melies moves everything but the camera in this multi set-up (backdrop) picaresque struggle between good and evil lush in opulent design and color; epitomized in the stunning turn of the century pop-out book finale. Despite its creaky look Kingdom is filled with wildly etched compositions of audacity and comedy all from the mind and eye of the neglected pioneer Melies.

Kingdom of Fairies, The (1903)

*** (out of 4)

aka Royaume des fees, Le

Epic film from Melies was meant to be in the same league as his A Trip to the Moon but it doesn't reach that level. In the film, a Prince is about to marry a Princess but before the wedding a witch comes and kidnaps the Princess. The Prince must then go on a dangerous journey to get her back. The film uses spoken narration to tell the story, which is certainly needed because without it the movie really doesn't make too much sense. I think the biggest problem with the film is its story, which I found rather weak and it really couldn't get me involved with the film. Even with that said this is a must see because of the beautiful costumes and art design, which are among the best from this era of film-making. The entire film is hand colored, which is another plus because it adds a lot of beauty to the film. The best sequence in the movie is an underwater one where we get to see large lobsters and a man eating whale. Most of the devils are colored either red or blue and this added effect makes for a lot of fun as well. The film runs 16-minutes, which was certainly epic in the day and it never really gets boring and again, this is due to the incredible look more than the story itself.