Georges Méliès in The Astronomer's Dream; or, The Man in the Moon (1898)

The Astronomer's Dream; or, The Man in the Moon

Georges Méliès in The Devil's Castle (1897)

Le Diable géant ou le miracle de la madone

Georges Méliès in The 400 Tricks of the Devil (1906)

Georges Méliès in The Infernal Cauldron (1903)

Dissatisfied with his life, a desperate man decides to make an unholy pact with the Devil, ignoring the seven deadly sins.

Ferdinand Zecca

Les sept châteaux du diable

Early Zecca Super-Production

Zecca was Pathe&apos;s lead director for the first five or ten years of the 20th Century and he did a lot of experimentation with cutting and editing. Many of them were dead-end experiments but some survived and lend a different air to modern French productions.

In this movie he undertakes to go against Georges Melies&apos; magic-and-spectacle production, using lots of double exposure, trick cuts and elaborate sets to illuminate this parable of a man who travels through the Devil&apos;s Seven Castles (the Seven Deadly Sins) until he is rescued at last by a beautiful young woman representing, no doubt, Virtue. The backgrounds are just as elaborate as Melies&apos;, although not as polished in execution -- the giant frog-like critter that represents Gluttony, devouring everything and everyone is pretty much obviously a sloppily-rigged thing. Nor does Zecca use as much undercranking in his shooting. The result is that Melies&apos; work has a lot more energy and verve.

The signs indicating which castle the particular scene is set in keep changing: sometimes French, sometimes English, sometimes German. Was this deliberate, to avoid having to restage these elaborate scenes for each market, or were there originally different versions for each market, with this version a compilation of existing prints?

Zecca was Pathe's lead director for the first five or ten years of the 20th Century and he did a lot of experimentation with cutting and editing. Many of them were dead-end experiments but some survived and lend a different air to modern French productions.

In this movie he undertakes to go against Georges Melies' magic-and-spectacle production, using lots of double exposure, trick cuts and elaborate sets to illuminate this parable of a man who travels through the Devil's Seven Castles (the Seven Deadly Sins) until he is rescued at last by a beautiful young woman representing, no doubt, Virtue. The backgrounds are just as elaborate as Melies', although not as polished in execution -- the giant frog-like critter that represents Gluttony, devouring everything and everyone is pretty much obviously a sloppily-rigged thing. Nor does Zecca use as much undercranking in his shooting. The result is that Melies' work has a lot more energy and verve.

The signs indicating which castle the particular scene is set in keep changing: sometimes French, sometimes English, sometimes German. Was this deliberate, to avoid having to restage these elaborate scenes for each market, or were there originally different versions for each market, with this version a compilation of existing prints?

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Les sept châteaux du diable

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