A magician creates a butterfly woman and then a spider woman.A magician creates a butterfly woman and then a spider woman.A magician creates a butterfly woman and then a spider woman.
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- TriviaStar Film 1530 - 1533.
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One of Méliès's last trick films
By 1909, Méliès's film company was ceasing production after exhaustively turning out a series of comedies and dramas which was becoming the new fad of filmmaking. The next year, 1910, he would stop production completely and resume in 1911, turning out his last few movies under the supervision of Pathé Frères.
"The Spider and the Butterfly" is one of his last trick films, notable for being one out of ten of the movies which was rediscovered years later to be projected at the Gala Méliès in 1929, colorized specially for the event. Unfortunately, the colorized print vanished thereafter, and now is only available in a brief, 2-minute fragment. Méliès plays a magician once again, disguised in a wig but still the playful, energetic Frenchman from years before. First, he makes a woman appear who is dressed as a butterfly, and shooting a gun then creates another woman in a five pointed star. Tired, he falls asleep only to wake up discovering the star woman has turned into a huge, scary octopus creature and is about to capture the butterfly in her web. The octopus tentacles are obviously reused from Méliès's "Under the Seas" from two years before.
The coloring job, while a little sloppy, looks very beautiful and uses some nice golds and reds to achieve a good visual look. It also feels less of a magic show and more of a fantasy/horror. Even so, this is evidently missing part of the beginning, and possibly more of the end, because the conclusion just doesn't feel complete. Maybe it was originally a dream film, and the magician only dreamed his creation turned into a octopus creature. Maybe it's sort of a variation on "Frankenstein". Who knows?
"The Spider and the Butterfly" is one of his last trick films, notable for being one out of ten of the movies which was rediscovered years later to be projected at the Gala Méliès in 1929, colorized specially for the event. Unfortunately, the colorized print vanished thereafter, and now is only available in a brief, 2-minute fragment. Méliès plays a magician once again, disguised in a wig but still the playful, energetic Frenchman from years before. First, he makes a woman appear who is dressed as a butterfly, and shooting a gun then creates another woman in a five pointed star. Tired, he falls asleep only to wake up discovering the star woman has turned into a huge, scary octopus creature and is about to capture the butterfly in her web. The octopus tentacles are obviously reused from Méliès's "Under the Seas" from two years before.
The coloring job, while a little sloppy, looks very beautiful and uses some nice golds and reds to achieve a good visual look. It also feels less of a magic show and more of a fantasy/horror. Even so, this is evidently missing part of the beginning, and possibly more of the end, because the conclusion just doesn't feel complete. Maybe it was originally a dream film, and the magician only dreamed his creation turned into a octopus creature. Maybe it's sort of a variation on "Frankenstein". Who knows?
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- Tornado_Sam
- Aug 11, 2018
Details
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- La mariposa fantástica
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Le papillon fantastique (1909) officially released in Canada in English?
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