Post by Capo on Feb 2, 2007 1:19:47 GMT
Le diable noir
The Black Devil
Georges Méliès 1905 France
A new guest is shown to his room at an inn, but there is a devil at work…
The imp here addresses the camera before his victim-to-be even enters the frame; we're in on it, on his method, and the film as a whole is like a kind of very unsettling pantomine… the actor playing the devil moves about with the physical wit of a gymnast, very theatrical and wonderful to watch. But Méliès is also doing interesting things with jump-cuts as a means of moving furniture (and making actors appear and disappear at will) and messing with the victim's perceptions. It's a clever way of manipulating characters within their own fictional space... a fictional being who finds himself at odds with the mise-en-scène he has been born into.
The Black Devil
Georges Méliès 1905 France
A new guest is shown to his room at an inn, but there is a devil at work…
The imp here addresses the camera before his victim-to-be even enters the frame; we're in on it, on his method, and the film as a whole is like a kind of very unsettling pantomine… the actor playing the devil moves about with the physical wit of a gymnast, very theatrical and wonderful to watch. But Méliès is also doing interesting things with jump-cuts as a means of moving furniture (and making actors appear and disappear at will) and messing with the victim's perceptions. It's a clever way of manipulating characters within their own fictional space... a fictional being who finds himself at odds with the mise-en-scène he has been born into.