La Danse du feu

As several reviewers have described before, Méliès... well, "borrowed" the idea of the serpentine dance from Dickson, and added his trademark goofy (yet awesome) Devil to it. It kinda works ... but mostly not. I'd rather watch Satan jump around a bit more, because let's be honest, it's an inexhaustible source of fun. He is more than capable to light a pillar of fire, there's no need to involve some random conjured woman in the process! Overall, a sloppy copy of a well-known original, clearly an error in the otherwise exceptional legacy.

Pillar of Fire, The (1899)

*** (out of 4)

aka La Danse du feu

Neat fantasy film from Melies has the devil building a fire, which springs forward a woman who does a strange dance. There are a few special effects here, which are quite nice but the big bonus of this film is that it is hand colored and looks pretty good at that. The devil is painted green and the woman in a mixture of orange and white but the film is a beauty to look at as an early example of color. As for the story, it's really nothing overly special but the film remains worth viewing for fans of the director or anyone interested in the early color films.

The film "Annabelle Serpentine Dance" (often just called "The Serpentine Dance") was one of the earliest sensations when it debuted back in 1895. This dance was a huge sensation on stage and once filmed, folks poured into theaters to see it. And, like most early films that were successful, other filmmakers stole the idea liberally. In fact, some would even take the original film and claim it was theirs! The problem was so rampant (and practically everyone was doing it) that American Biograph put a watermark on their films...a giant AB in the bottom corner...in order to prevent others from saying the film was created by them!

The problem of theft was so bad that the innovative filmmaker Georges Méliès even resorted to stealing, I mean 'borrowing', the idea! This is rather ironic as he was one of the most copied and stolen from filmmakers of his day and many of his films were copied by Edison as well as his most famous copycat, Segundo de Chomón....and many of their films are indistinguishable from the work of Méliès...though more often than not, the work wasn't quite as good as the French master filmmaker's.

Here in "La Colonne de Feu", Méliès takes the Serpentine Dance and makes it his own. Like at least a hundred other films by Méliès, this one begins with a magician or conjurer working at his craft...with a giant frying pan this time. After a little hocus pocus, the Serpentine Dancer appears and begins her weird but mesmerizing dance....a dance you just need to see to appreciate. Well worth seeing...but clearly a rip-off!

There is no real idea here. A woman is conjured and flails around. It feels five minutes long even though it's so short. Skippable!

The film is obviously painted. With no color film, each frame had to be colored. The beginning moment is quite striking. A devilish figure appears and creates an angelic female who begins to dance. She swirls her wispy clothing and actually makes the aforementioned pillar of fire. It is quite striking to watch. Another thoughtful venture.