Cinderella (1899)
*** (out of 4)
aka Cendrillon
The poor Cinderella gets a visit from her fairy godmother but the fun ends at midnight. There were earlier versions of this classic story but who better to bring it to life than George Melies? Melies brings his normal magic to the film and the special effects are pretty good. The highlight of the film is during the beginning when the godmother shows up and for a brief second we get some hand colored sequences. The coloring here is a lot better than what we've seen from this period. Since the film only runs five minutes not all of the story gets shown but the director does a good job at filling the screen with all the high points of the story. This certainly isn't as good as the 1914 version with Mary Pickford but it's still a winner.
*** (out of 4)
aka Cendrillon
The poor Cinderella gets a visit from her fairy godmother but the fun ends at midnight. There were earlier versions of this classic story but who better to bring it to life than George Melies? Melies brings his normal magic to the film and the special effects are pretty good. The highlight of the film is during the beginning when the godmother shows up and for a brief second we get some hand colored sequences. The coloring here is a lot better than what we've seen from this period. Since the film only runs five minutes not all of the story gets shown but the director does a good job at filling the screen with all the high points of the story. This certainly isn't as good as the 1914 version with Mary Pickford but it's still a winner.