Alternate Titles: Le Royaume des fées (French title); Fairyland; or, the Kingdom of the Fairies (US title); Wonders of the Deep (UK title).
Country: France
Length: 16’26” / 1,080ft.
Black and White
Production Company: Star Film
Mise en scène: Georges Méliès
Based on: La Biche au bois (The Doe in the Forest—1865), by the Brothers Cogniard (or La Biche au bois, pièce féerie en 1 acte, mêlée de couplets (1826) by Nicolas Brazier, Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche and Jean-Baptiste Dubois).
Cast: Georges Méliès (Prince Bel-Azor), Marguerite Thévenard (Princess Azurine), Bluette Bernon (Aurora).
Synopsis: The announcement of the betrothal of Princess Azurine and Prince Bel-Azor, is interrupted by a witch, who curses the Princess and later, with her minions, carries her away on a chariot of fire. With the aid of the Fairy Godmother Aurora, the prince gives chase, and after a shipwreck, is helped by Neptune to locate the witch’s castle. The Princess is rescued, the castle destroyed and the witch thrown over a cliff in a barrel.
Review: Star Film # 483–489. Méliès’ big production of 1903 thankfully still survives in its hand-colored form. Mme Thulliers and her team of girls were responsible for coloring each frame—each girl was assigned a different color—and they provided this service for the majority of the French film industry. The result is well worth the effort, as this is one of Méliès’ most sumptuously designed productions. The flaming chariot that carries away the princess, and the undersea journey to Neptune’s court, are particularly impressive, and the triumphant return of the prince and princess is a rare example of a scene shot outdoors at the Montreuil studio.
While the film is widely reported as being based on either the stage works, by the Brothers Cogniard (performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in 1845), or Nicolas Brazier, Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche and Jean-Baptiste Dubois (performed in the same theater in 1826), sources also mention the story by Marie-Catherine le Jumel d'Aulnoy (1650/1–1705)—who first coined the term ‘fairy tale’—there seems to be very little similarity between the stage works (which are possibly related) and the story. Raymond Knapp, in The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005), mentions that an 1865 revival of the Cogniard piece by Hervé, includes ballet sequences for “sea creatures set in an underwater grotto.” It seems likely therefore that the fairy tale and the play have no link (in the fairy tale, the princess is turned into a doe), and this film is based solely on one or other (or both) of the stage works.
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