The above title is not to say that this is the director's first film featuring the devil. Even though it was only 1899 and just the fourth year in the renowned director's career, Satanic elements had already appeared in at least three other movies by Méliès before this time. The first one had been 1896's "The House of the Devil", which like this film also ran for three minutes, but featured actor Jules-Eugène Legris (not Méliès, as some people think) in the role of Mephistopheles. (Legris was a magician who performed at Méliès's Théâtre Robert-Houdin; his role in playing the part is unconfirmed, however). The remake of that film, made a year after the original, also had a brief appearance of the devil in similar costume (possibly also Legris, but again definitely not Méliès). Even "The Astronomer's Dream" of 1898 also included Satan, but in a less menacing and more playful character than in the previous two films. Again, not Méliès. Because of this evidence, I have come to the conclusion that "The Devil in a Convent" has to be the first known film in which Méliès takes on the titular role. Not only that, it was something he would continue to do mostly for the rest of his career (all the way until 1912's "The Knight of the Snows" which was his penultimate film).
Even though Méliès had already produced two other movies years before this with three-minute run-times, the bulk of film which went into the making of this short is extraordinary. Often, your typical films of the time were not only forty or so seconds long, they often featured no acting, no special effects or set designs. That's how it was; no one cared exactly what they saw so long as it was moving. Because of this, it was left up to Méliès alone to initiate these effects, and using the editing trick known as the substitution splice, he could make something like this. Not only does "The Devil in a Convent" have an imaginative sense of humor (who ever heard of a convent haunted by ghosts of dead nuns?) it's also visually astounding. The huge devil head--which is reminiscent of the moon face from "The Astronomer's Dream"--is both artistic and fun and it's desirable that it could have been onscreen longer. The entire set design is all just cardboard, but Méliès certainly knew how to make his movies into visual treats and goes a long way with his materials.
Third of all, it's also one of the director's few attempts at religious filmmaking. To be specific, it's actually the second. The first film in this genre of the director's had been the previous year's "Temptation of St. Anthony". He would later continue religious works with "Christ Walking on the Water" (1899, now lost) and "The Wandering Jew" (1904). I can imagine if this film hadn't ended with the devil's defeat, this one also, like "Temptation of St. Anthony", could have caused some scandals as being sacreligious at the time. In addition, like others, this film again carries the 'good vs. evil' theme (a recurring concept throughout his work). There's no telling why he found it such an interesting and worthwhile idea, but it's used to great effect here.
As far as I know, only two prints of this film survive. Considering that more than 75% of the director's films are now lost, this is a miracle in and of itself, particularly when you consider that one of those two copies is hand-colored. I regret to say that this hand-colored copy is available nowhere online. Much of it is too degraded to be restored, but I'd still hope what could be restored will be on YouTube at some point.
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