User Reviews

A man in a drunken state has a nightmarish time at an inn, where clothing and furniture comes to life, and mayhem ensues. Melies uses his typical tricks to very effectively communicate the surreal state of the drunken mind, and the progression of the plot from a simple beginning to a crazy end is well managed. Predictability is the curse of comedy however and you can see everything that happens here from a mile away.

It's wonderful to see Melies use his tricks to reflect an internal mental state, though in terms of tricks, visuals and plot, this one doesn't compare to his best work. At 5 minutes though, it is not too long, and a decent watch for Melies fans.

This Georges Méliès short movie features some amusing and creative special effects. The story is not meant to be the emphasis, but what there is of a story is rather amusing as well. The film uses the setting in an inn to create a good variety of camera tricks using a lot of the available props and characters.

The story starts with a rather cantankerous traveler arriving in an inn, and goes on to show his travails in (as the film was titled in English) "The Inn Where No Man Rests". Almost all of the camera effects come off quite well, and there is a particularly good one with a coat-rack. Aside from a couple of places where deterioration to the film has apparently harmed the effect, it all works well.

The story is similar to a fair number of Méliès features, especially "Le Diable Noir" (or "The Black Imp") from 1905. This one works well, and should not disappoint anyone who enjoys his style in this kind of feature.

Georges Méliès was an early film genius. Whereas most of the early silent films were very dull when seen today because they featured very mundane subjects (such as babies eating or a puppy going for a walk), his films had real plots, sets and special effects. When seen today, many will either think his films were quaint or silly, but for the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this was the cutting edge of cinema.

This particular short is very similar to his other short, THE BLACK IMP--using many of the exact same film tricks. In this case, a man checks in to an inn and all kinds of crazy special effects are used to keep him from getting to sleep. However, despite the subject matter being a tad familiar, once again it is executed so well that you probably won't mind--especially as it is still very creative and funny. I particularly liked watching the boots walk up the wall, but all the crazy things that happened in this room at the inn are quite clever and engaging.

Inn Where No Man Rests, The (1903)

*** (out of 4)

aka L'Auberge du bon Repos

George Melies, in a drunken state, walks into a room, which eventually begins to come to life with various magical tricks. This film here runs five minutes and it starts off rather slowly but once the room comes to life it becomes a lot of fun. Once again, the moon and the Devil play parts in the movie but we've also got a really weird scene at the start when Melies tries to force himself on a woman. We've seen this type of film before from the director but he still manages to make this entertaining due in large part to some very good special effects including his boots taking off walking, his bed jumping around and the highlight is the scene where his nightshirt gets eaten by a picture on the wall.

A drunk checks into a room. At first he is irrational and silly. But eventually he wants to get some sleep. As Melies has done numerous times, this is not going to happen. Pictures come alive, he is attacked by a hat tree, his boots walk up the wall. Whenever he tries to sleep, the bed comes alive. He begins to defend himself and it only gets worse. This is a common plot line. It allowed Melies to put a human being in a totally frustrating setting. Entertaining.