Witch, The (1906)
*** (out of 4)
aka La Fée Carabosse ou le poignard fatal The Impossible Voyage
Colorful and engaging film from Melies about a troubadour who goes to see a witch to get his fortune told. He promises the witch a bag full of gold but it turns out to be sand so the witch seeks vengeance on him with various hauntings. Hand-coloring these films are always tricky as some of them look great while others look incredibly bad and silly. I've seen quite a few of these tinted films from this era and I must admit that this here is the best one I've seen. I really loved all the colors being thrown around and this is easy to see when the troubadour first goes to see the witch. The color of their outfits are really terrific and the look of the witch is rather breathtaking and will make you think of the 1939 version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. The story itself is pretty strong as well, although the subplot of the troubadour trying to save a princess being held captive stops the film in its tracks to a point. With that said, there are plenty of wild special effects and neat tricks to make this a must see from the filmmography of Melies.
*** (out of 4)
aka La Fée Carabosse ou le poignard fatal The Impossible Voyage
Colorful and engaging film from Melies about a troubadour who goes to see a witch to get his fortune told. He promises the witch a bag full of gold but it turns out to be sand so the witch seeks vengeance on him with various hauntings. Hand-coloring these films are always tricky as some of them look great while others look incredibly bad and silly. I've seen quite a few of these tinted films from this era and I must admit that this here is the best one I've seen. I really loved all the colors being thrown around and this is easy to see when the troubadour first goes to see the witch. The color of their outfits are really terrific and the look of the witch is rather breathtaking and will make you think of the 1939 version of THE WIZARD OF OZ. The story itself is pretty strong as well, although the subplot of the troubadour trying to save a princess being held captive stops the film in its tracks to a point. With that said, there are plenty of wild special effects and neat tricks to make this a must see from the filmmography of Melies.