Barbe-bleue

Like many of the classic films of Georges Méliès, 'Bluebeard' is groundbreaking, surprising, and filled with fun camera tricks and special effects magic, and it is also, no doubt, one of his darkest films. It's one of the earliest horror films ever made, and it gets pretty wild, particularly towards the end in which Méliès just fills the screen with action and suspense and special effects and death and ghosts and so on and so on.

The first portion of the film is actually fairly comedic, which makes how bizarre and tense it gets later on all the more surprising, shocking, and uniquely amusing/entertaining. Much of the comedy is in the common vaudevillian and slapstick vein Méliès's films, whether they be science fiction, romance, fantasy, etc., often indulge in. It helps set a tone that is harshly shifted by the end in a very enjoyable and fun way.

Of course, it gets better once it becomes a full blown horror film. Images of hanging women and keys that grow and shrink and spirits and an extremely energetic devil come and go and it's surreal and extremely impressive for the time. Méliès experiments with the overlaying of images atop other images, an effect we now take very much for granted, in a very thrilling nightmare sequence, and the jump cut tricks and theatrical bursts of smoke are very much in the vein of many of Méliès's other fantastical shorts.

I don't know the story of Bluebeard, so this ten minute motion picture is my first introduction. I could gather that he was wealthy and wanted to marry a recalcitrant woman. She reluctantly agreed and was given a huge wedding feast. After the wedding Bluebeard bestowed upon her the keys to his castle--and they were many--essentially telling her that the entire estate was at her disposal, except for one room. One room he made a big show about being off limits, then, laughably, he gave her the key to that room. So what do you think she did?

Of course, she entered the room where she saw the corpses (I'm assuming) of former wives.

I'm intrigued. I now must read the story of Bluebeard.

Free on YouTube.

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.

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.