Fairy Tales: Early Colour Stencil films from Pathe (1901-1908)

Once upon a time, during the belle epoque in turn-of-the-century Paris, a short-lived film form called scenes de feeries, or fairy films, was becoming popular thanks to the Pathe Frerer company. In jewel-like colours the films, made to appeal to young and old alike, recreated the theatrical spectacles of the age with their fantastical settings, dancing girls, mythical beasts, supernatural beings and a plethora of stage tricks enhanced by the techniques of the new medium of film.

Presented here with original hand-colouring, each film is accompanied with a newly commissioned soundtrack by recording artists from the leading experimental music label Touch. Contributions from such acclaimed composers as Chris Watson, BJ Nilsen, Hildur Gudnadottir and Fennesz combine with the beautiful images to create a unique and unforgettable experience.

Un drame au fond de la mer
Year: 1901 | Time :1 min
Director: Ferdinand Zecca
Using a blue tint to set the scene under the sea, this is a short, surprisingly violent film where two divers fight to the death with axes over some treasure beneath the waves. The creepy score by Jana Winderen was actually recorded underwater.

Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs
Year: 1902 | Time :9 mins
This relies on the viewer knowing the story (which I don’t particularly), but the use of colour and sets are impressive. The industrial soundtrack got a bit headache-inducing though.

Ballet des sylphides
Year: 1902 | Time :1 min
Director: Ferdinand Zecca
This is a short, simple ballet performance. More colours are used here than in the previous two films, but the print is quite badly damaged.

La belle au Bois-Dormant
Year: 1902 | Time :14 mins
Directors: Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca
This version of Sleeping Beauty had a big budget for the time and it shows in the lavish production design. The colour is a bit haphazardly applied though and I found it a little dull, but the score is beautiful and the use of real locations and extravagant settings make it pretty to watch.

Loie Fuller
Year: 1902 | Time :2 mins
Director: Segundo de Chomón
This is another short, simple dance number. It’s quite stunning and unusual though with a bat turning into a woman who proceeds to give us a skirt dance before disappearing into thin air. The dance is mesmerising with the skirt stunningly changing colour throughout the film.

Valse excentrique
Year: 1903 | Time :2 mins
This is simply just a dance routine played out in a long shot (with a few hidden cuts), but it is rather acrobatic and bewitching to watch, with its swirling, light score and impressive dance moves.

Japonaiseries
Year: 1904 | Time :2 mins
Director: Gaston Velle
A foley-style soundtrack is accentuated to add to the comic tone of this Japanese-set magic show. There is a lot of visual trickery on display, ending with an amazing effect using reverse footage and superimposing/projecting images on top of one another.

La Danse du diable
Year: 1904 | Time:3 mins
Director: Gaston Velle
This is a mesmerising little short that employs a peculiar bird’s eye view of a mischievous devil that dances around, performing strange tricks and making sexy ladies appear out of nowhere. The colourful visual effects are very impressive for the time.

La métamorphose du papillon
Year: 1904 | Time :2 mins
Director: Gaston Velle
Field recordings of nature accompany this simple, one set film depicting a caterpillar turning into a boldly colourful butterfly. It’s straight forward, but strangely beautiful.

Les sept châteaux du diable
Year: 1904 | Time :11 mins
Director: Ferdinand Zecca
An oppressive droning score makes this rendering of the Faust legend quite disturbing to watch. The film itself consists of a number of impressive ‘appearing out of thin air’ effects, some lavish costumes, sets and backdrops. A climactic sword fight between a man and the devil is a standout scene.

Martyrs Chrétiens
Year: 1905 | Time :7 mins
Director: Lucien Nonguet
This is quite unlike most of the films in the set, with a Biblical setting rather than a fairy story. It’s also rather graphically violent, depicting the martyrdom of Christians from the Bible. In one sequence men are eaten alive by lions, with guts on display.

La fée Printemps
Year: 1906 | Time :5 mins
Director: Alice Guy
A beautiful minimalist string score accompanies this sweet little film. A couple bring an old lady into their home to help her shelter from the thick falling snow, but it turns out to be a fairy who grants them a wish. This uses some effective reverse photography and the simple story works well.

La peine du talion
Year: 1906 | Time :6 mins
Director: Gaston Velle
This is a sweet little story where a butterfly collector and his two attractive female assistants are captured by butterflies, who make judgement on the collector, punishing him by pinning him to a mushroom to show him how it feels. He promptly smashes his butterfly net and everyone lives happily ever after! I enjoyed this simple tale quite a bit and the use of colour is nice too.

Les roses magiques
Year: 1906 | Time :4 mins
Director: Segundo de Chomón
This is another magic trick piece, with a magician performing a number of acts using roses. The colours are crisp and clear though and the effects quite well pulled-off so it’s a fun little film.

Cendrillon
Year: 1907 | Time :16 mins
Director: Albert Capellani
Cast: Louise Lagrange
This is a compact telling of the Cinderella fairy tale. The soundtrack is a little too subtle for my liking, but the film is elaborately staged. It’s more cinematic than a lot of the other titles, using some real locations and three-dimensional sets rather than simple painted backdrops. There’s an impressive effect where a wall blows in to reveal what is happening elsewhere in the story world. I found the film a little dull overall though due to the overly familiar story.

La sorcière noire
Year: 1907 | Time :4 mins
With a beautifully painted Arabian backdrop and some vivid colours, this is one of the more visually impressive pieces, but there isn’t much to the film itself, just another series of tricks with fewer impressive effects than in other films.

Le pied de mouton
Year: 1907 | Time :5 mins
Director: Albert Capellani
This played strangely on my system and is missing a few segments, so I found it tough to watch. Another overly minimalistic score didn’t help. It does have some elaborate stage tricks and a bizarre imagination though so I found myself quite intrigued by the whole thing.

Le spectre rouge
Year: 1907 | Time :9 mins
Directors: Segundo de Chomón, Ferdinand Zecca
Set in the fiery depths of hell, this is a visually interesting, red-hued magic show, with a skeletal figure using a lot of fire and smoke to create his tricks. The soundtrack was far too minimal for me, barely registering at all, but the film itself is creepy and odd with some impressive early special effects.

La légende du fantôme
Year: 1908 | Time :9 mins
Director: Segundo de Chomón
I enjoyed this one a lot. It doesn’t make a lot of sense – a woman unleashes a bunch of demons from a graveyard and she’s set out on a quest which largely involves her driving around in a gothically modified car with a bunch of transformed demons around a strange underworld. In this land there seems to be a lot of demonic partying going on too with the creatures dancing around all the time with lots of flares and fireworks. It’s bat-shit crazy but a lot of fun and the playfully inventive score fits it perfectly.

Le faune
Year: 1908 | Time :5 mins
Director: Gaston Velle
This is an incomplete fragment of a longer film, so doesn’t make much sense, but it’s very beautiful and colourful with plenty of fireworks, flames and fountains as well as the customary fairies, magic and dancing.

La belle Niçoise
Year: 1909
Director: Camille de Morlhon

La Poule aux oeufs d’or
Year ; 1905 | Time :/14 mins
This has more of a clear narrative than most of the films in the set although it’s still quite odd and random compared to today’s films. There are some effectively surreal and creepy sequences in this imaginative short, such as the devil’s face appearing in an egg and spewing coins as well as the finale where our protagonist is sent to an egg-filled hell.

L’Album merveilleux
Year :1905 | Time :5 mins
This is in poor condition and the hand colouring is a little rough around the edges compared to the others, but it contains some impressive ‘appearing’ effects as pieces of paper from a giant book turn into people and then back to paper in the punchline. It’s repetitive, but enjoyably trippy.

L’Antre de la sorcière
Year :1906 | Time :7 mins
This tale of a shepherd being taken away by a witch and tormented is full of more effective ‘disappearing and reappearing’ effects, but the mugging of the ‘comic’ simpleton lead put me off. The colour stencilling has been lost on this too, so instead we are left with a strange, black, flickering cast over items.

Le Scarabée d’or
Year :1907 | Time :3 mins
There’s not much to this peculiar film about a Egyptian sorcerer that sets free a magical woman from a golden scarab beetle, but it’s a visual treat with its coloured fountains and impressive pyrotechnics.

L’Oiseau blue
Year :1908 | Time :12 mins
This is a frustrating watch as there looks to be some great filmmaking there, but a number of scenes (including the beginning and end) are missing, the print is in poor condition and the soundtrack is so harsh it’s unlistenable. It looks very nice though and the production values are once again quite high, but the current presentation is a shame.

Extras:
- Newly commissioned scores by Touch artists, including Philip Jeck, Fennesz and Chris Watson.
- Barbe-blue (1901, 11 minutes); Georges Melies' telling of the Bluebeard tale with music by SAVX.
- Little Red Riding Hood (1922, 8 minutes): Anson's Dyer animation made for Hepworth Picture Plays with music by Rosy Parlane.
- La Danse du diable (Sint-Lukas versions): nine alternative scores by students from Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design.

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