La fée des grèves

La fee des greves (1909)

*** (out of 4)

Entertaining film from Feuillade has some similarities to his SPRING but the stories go in different directions. This time out a man takes his two friends out onto the water because he claims you can see fairies dancing. The men go out there, see the fairies and actually manage to capture one. Back home the man soon begins to fall in love with her. Even though this film shares some stuff with SPRING and while the effects aren't nearly as good as the ones you'd see in a film by Melies, there's still quite a bit to enjoy here. I think the best thing is the actual story as it's a rather tender love story that manages to work and I was surprised at how well the director was able to get this across in such a short time. Another impressive thing was the hand-coloring, which looked pretty good even though the print I watched was badly faded. I thought the coloring job was a lot better than some of the work I've seen from this era. I doubt those who hate early cinema are going to have their opinions changed by this film but it's certainly worthwhile for fans of the era.

At 7 minutes in length, this was about as close as you'd find in 1907 to a full-length film--though there are a few unusual exceptions. This Louis Feuillade film is unusual compared to the average film of the day for several reasons. First, it's a costume drama--with clothing that appears about 15th century in style (give or take a week). It's also unusual because the director used some camera tricks (archaic by today's standards) to make it appear as if some fairies are dancing across the water (could this be a clip from Feuillade's "Spring"?) as well as other images throughout the film. Finally, while not too unusual for the day, viewers might be surprised to see a few hand-colored cells here and there throughout the film--though many seem a bit faded.

Three men go out on the ocean in a row boat. There, they see dancing fairies. Then manage to catch one and take her aboard the boat--taking her back to the castle with them. Then, one of the men asks the fairy to marry him and they do so--though something strange occurs right after the ceremony.

Overall, a truly odd little film but for 1909, this is a very good and worthwhile film, as it tells a story (not just a germ of a story but a whole story), has sets and costumes and has, for the day, nice production values.