The Infernal Cauldron

Every fantasy/horror fan should check out this 1-minute short from pioneering French director Georges Méliès. Made the year after what many consider Méliès' masterpiece LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (A TRIP TO THE MOON) and not nearly as elaborate or impressive as that work, this is still a great piece of film history no film fan will have a problem spending 60 seconds of their time viewing. Unlike most other shorts from the filmmaker, this one was also hand-tinted a variety of bold colors, which gives it a different look and feel than others from the same era. It starts with two green, pitchfork-holding demons in horned headdresses luring a woman into their castle, wrapping her in a sheet and then throwing her into a cauldron, which then erupts in flames. They then throw two others in. The second demon stirs the pot and then the lead demon (played by the director himself) summons each of the three individual spirits. Smoke and fire erupt from the cauldron as each spirit emerges and then floats around overhead. The painted castle backdrop is a simple but effective Gothic design, with just a few thrones and a couple of red demon masks on the walls, and the special effects are very good and have held up surprisingly well over time. Other than a few choppy jumps toward the end of this short as the spirits catch fire and turn to ash, it's a very cool and interesting short.

"The Infernal Cauldron" a 1903 little 2 min short film is odd a unique exercise in something bad or the cult if you want to call it in that type of way. Simple and to the point inside of a gothic and mid evil like castle three women are sacrificed by demons by being put into a boiling pot and burned. And in the aftermath their spirits form into ghost clouds! Certainly nothing compared to legendary horror classics of the 70's and 80's still it was a different and to the point concept of evil, souls, and spirits. As many watchers of old classic silent films would enjoy watching as without dialogue you the viewer form your own thoughts and feelings!

Melies' typically lively imagination is once again evident here as he treats us to a macabre little scene in which a couple of demons capture unfortunate souls and bundle them into the eponymous cauldron only to then summon their spirits. The film is hand-coloured and is still in remarkably good condition, and Melies' trademark special effects are up to his usual standard - in fact they can stand comparison with the special effects in movies made 70 years later. There's not much plot, but then plot was never the most important thing to Melies - he was more concerned with visualising his incredible imagination on the screen. This one is a real treat.

1903 was a terrific year for Méliès, as he created his greatest and most amazing film, Le Voyage Dans le Lune. It is STILL an amazing and cute little film that was longer and more complex than any previous film. Its use of trick cinematography, great sets and innovations make it a truly landmark film. And, while Le Chaudron Infernal is STILL an amazing film, it pales in comparison to some of these other films.

Interestingly enough, the film is in color--featuring each individual cel having been hand-painted! This, plus the cool camera tricks make this a standout film. Now as far as plots go, it's pretty weird stuff. Two demons are chucking damned souls into a cauldron and ultimately summon their spirits using incantations! There's really no more plot than that--and that's why it is a tad disappointing.

If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.

This film, "The Infernal Caldron" is a single-scene trick film by Georges Méliès, who made many such subjects, which creatively exploited cinematic techniques, mostly substitution splices and multiple-exposure photography. This film is the earliest one that I recall where the filmmaker used multiple exposures to create such indistinguishable ghostly images. I know that he had made ghosts or spirits with the technique before, such as in "A Fantastical Meal" (1900), as had other early filmmakers, but those ghosts that I've seen are distinguished as human looking—only fainter or more transparent in appearance than the living. The trick for the blurry ghost blobs in "The Infernal Caldron" was to alter the lens to go out of focus for their exposure. Méliès repeated the trick for his next film, "Apparitions" (Le Revenant)(1903).

Additionally, this particular trick film remains appealing today because it's available in a vibrant hand-colored print. The color especially aids in making the fire red, as well as bringing attention to the décor and costumes. In the film, the director plays a demon who places people in a cauldron. The out-of-focus spirits fly out of the cauldron and then transform into fireballs. There are quite a few macabre little pictures among Méliès's surviving films, but this is one of my favorites.

P.S. Many, if not most, of Méliès's films were offered to be hand-painted for exhibitors (for an additional fee). Most films from this era are lost, and many of the films that do survive and that were in color have lost their paint over time or only remain in prints that weren't colorized. An all-female staff headed by a Madame Thullier, reportedly, provided the color for all such Star Films, from 1896 or 1897 to 1910, as well as for other French studios. The coloring was done manually in an assembly-line procedure, film-by-film, frame-by-frame, with each laborer specializing in a certain color. Otherwise, some fairground exhibitors may have colored their own prints to cut costs. Later, Pathé's stencil process made coloring easier and more consistent (main source: Frazer, "Artificially Arranged Scenes").