Le monstre

Monster, The (1903)

*** (out of 4)

aka Monstre, Le

This here seems to be an early take on the Frankenstein story and was made seven years before Edison's official version. An Egyptian prince has recently lost his wife so he brings a man with her coffin to try and bring her from the dead. This is a fun little film that Melies manages to bring a lot of his magic to the screen as well as an overall playful attitude. When they pull the skeleton out of the coffin and start doing their magic, the skeleton begins to dance in a very playful matter before the Prince tries to her one final kiss. The magic tricks are pretty good with the last one being the best where the Prince goes to give his wife a kiss but something goes wrong. The back of the stage is done up in an Egyptian manor and looks quite nice. Fans of the horror genre will certainly want to check this one out since there are various early horror elements. The film includes spoken narration.

This is one of the funniest early silent-era films I've seen. The story is simple: set against the backdrop of the Sphinx in Egypt (which looks strangely comedic itself in this film), a man wants to resurrect his dead wife. We see a wild metamorphosis from skeleton to beautiful woman and back again, right before our eyes. There were so many small moments that made me laugh-for example, how the skeleton started dancing, how the woman's body parts like her neck stretched unnaturally before settling into place, or how the man rejected his wife when she still looked half-mummified but got excited once she appeared as a healthy, beautiful human. And then there's the abrupt but extremely humorous ending. I watched the film accompanied by some lovely violin music from 1911, which was a perfect match-I think the choice of music really matters here.

In this two minute movie, we get a guy who takes a skeleton and creates a monster. For what purpose? Who cares? It's a monster! Time to do the MASH!

This is How to Make a Monster 101: add water. If no water available, throw on a white dress. Preferable if you have an Egyptian backdrop. Warning: the monster may do wild Muppety-dances and grow a giant neck and go tall and short at random moments because it's George Melies and he was the first delightful madman of the cinema. You'll have to get through the first minute of this two minute spectacle to get to the good stuff, but once you do it's a whole lot of frames of dancing mania and with an ending that is a genuine thrill and surprise (though all part of Melies' dated but wonderful magic tricks in general).

A couple of Egyptians stand in front of the Sphinx, probably at Giza. The one is missing his wife and prays to the gods to return her. He has her skeleton and, sure enough, through magic, she is returned. Her skeleton regains its body. But things don't always turn out the way we want, especially when the gods are involved. It has a dramatic conclusion.

This little atmospheric short is about a couple of people in Egypt who are visited by a ghostly skeletal creature who rises out of a coffin that they have been transporting. Georges Méliès shows here once again that he was not only adept at visual trickery but was able to present it in an interesting way. The Egyptian setting is a nice touch and adds some exotic ambiance. The skeletal creature is manipulated in ways that are visually interesting. It dances around and is covered in sheets making it appear like a ghostly apparition. It rises high into the air and disappears into the ground. It even latterly turns into a woman. Of course, it's all very gimmicky but early films did not really tell stories at this point in history and Méliès did imbue his trick films with a definite charm. Le Monstre does sort of come off as a magician's show in many ways, but like a lot of his films it has been given a personality and the exotic flavour doesn't do it any harm at all.