Peau d'âne

This early movie version of the fairy tale story is quite an expensive-looking effort. With its cast of dozens, elaborate sets and costumes, and effects that were difficult to achieve, it must have cost a pretty penny, or perhaps a lots of sous for Albert Cappelani. Yet, looking at this, it often seems obscure. One of the reasons is that it is based on a French fairy tale with lots of details that seem awkwardly joined; if you know the story, the movie makes perfect sense. If not, not.

Another of the reason that this movie seems strange is its use of mixed film and stage techniques for grammar. When the fairy steps out of a chest, that is clearly shooting the scene with the chest empty, stopping the camera, having the actress step into the chest, and restarting the camera. To the audience, poof! She appears! When she appears later by stepping out of a cabinet, the interior of which changes from the inside of a camera to an elaborately scalloped shell, that is clearly achieved by a mechanical apparatus.

Is this a movie or a stage show? At the time, there was no clear demarcation. Cinema was evolving rapidly, everything was being tried out, and this effect was already familiar to the audiences because of its use in live performances. It wuld linger for some time..... but be gone by 1912.