THE RAJAH’S DREAM (1900)
aka Le reve du rdjah ou La foret enchantee
Article 4252 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-17-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Trick film

A rajah’s nap is interrupted by a nightmare.

Here’s another one of Melies’s earlier trick films. One of the advantages of his earlier films is that he kept them short and quick-moving; some of his later work suffers from pacing problems. During the dream, he encounters a huge butterfly, one of those pieces of furniture that teleport from one place to the next, a tree that turns into a demon wrestler, and the usual coterie of dancing girls, in this case armed with axes and with other ideas in mind than merely entertaining the rajah. Though certain odd touches help, this one doesn’t really stand out from the crowd of early Melies shorts.