Cendrillon (1899)

An early film by Georges Méliès, Cendrillon is the story of Cinderella, told in less than 6 minutes. As is typical of Méliès work, of course, it contains lots of trick photography - Much more so than was the norm at the time. Méliès was the first director (that I know of) to realise the potential of cinema as a medium for showing the impossible. He was certainly the first to really exploit that potential.


One of the more interesting aspects about this film is that it is episodic; there are four separate scenes, which was unheard of at the time - Apparently, no other film before this contained more than a single scene. We have Cinderella at home, where she is visited by the Fairy Godmother. She is then seen dancing at the prince's ball. She returns home, where she has a nightmare about running out of time. The final scene is the wedding procession.


The print I saw even had some hand-colouring, which was also quite interesting to see.


Thoroughly watchable, and, honestly, quite fun. Best film I've found from this far back (and I think I'm unlikely to look much further back).


Enjoy!