"Le royaume des fées" or "Kingdom of the Fairies" is a French 17-minute movie from 1903, so this one is already way over a century old. It is among the more known works by prolific filmmaker Georges Méliès, who once more did not only write and direct, but star in here too. This is a rare example of an early silent film that is in color and this one here is not just a quick joke or a magic shgow, but tells an actual story and it is even based on literature. Sadly, despite the color certainly making it a more interesting work, you never have any idea here what's going on if you haven't read Marie-Catherine le Jumel d'Aulnoy's work. Méliès tries his best, but film in the very early 20th century was simply not yet at a level that does the story justice. And it is not just the absence of sound I am talking about here. If you hear any music while checking this one out, then that was added later of course. This film feels all over the place lacking focus and coherence completely from start to finish. An, most of all, lacking intertitles that could have made it easier to understand at all what was going on in here. Not one of my favorite works by Méliès, even if it does look really beautiful at times for a 1903 movie. All in all, it's probably still only worth seeing for film historians. Pretty much everybody else can skip it.
The Kingdom of the Fairies
(1903)
Méliès may be ready, the medium sadly isn't
14 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers