Fairy Tales: Early Colour Stencil Films From Pathe Review

• 28th Nov 2012

The BFI have really done themselves proud with their latest offering, almost two and a half hours of pure belle époque movie magic. This compilation of early colour stencil films from Pathé includes a carefully chosen kaleidoscope of short film output totalling 25 films and 4 extras all with newly commissioned experimental soundtracks by artists from the Touch label. While all falling under the short lived genre of ‘fairy films’ they encompass far more than just fairy tales, including short films of magical illusions / stage trickery and featuring acrobats, dancers, devils and skeletons in a myriad of exotic locations.

All of the films show beautiful early hand colouring, enabling the viewer to get an amazing glimpse of the techniques and development of early filmmaking and the director’s first visions. While of varying colouring quality, they are all stunning and beautifully set the mood for the action portrayed. It is amazing to watch work so wonderfully restored and presented from over 100 years ago and the quality of the surviving footage compiled here is heartening to see. The DVD comes with a truly exceptional and outstanding accompanying booklet. Contained within for each film are extensive notes on the historical background, the story and the music for each film, along with things to look out for and detail on dates and context. I was very impressed and it added huge enjoyment to my viewing experience.

There are some real gems included in this collection and it is really difficult to list all the highlights without running into pages of highly excitable waffle, but I will restrain myself and mention a few which I consider to be unmissable! My absolute favourite was ‘The Black Pearl’, a fantastic gothic horror complete with dancing demons, skeletal soldiers and an appropriately bonkers soundtrack. The classic fairy tales are represented in a beautifully coloured and technically brilliant early version of ‘Cinderella’ by Albert Capellani and the famous early film ‘The hen that laid the golden eggs’ among others. ‘The Red Spectre’ is another delightful early horror film, genuinely disturbing and beautifully shot. The fairy films themselves such as ‘The fairy of Spring’ and ‘Metamorphosis of a butterfly’ are captivatingly beautiful with haunting gothic music and amazing special effects such as falling snow. Finally, I fell completely in love with the beautiful supernatural film of dancer Loië Fuller turning into a bat.

The four extra short films are very interesting historically and provide a good juxtaposition to the main body of work. It is great to see the acclaimed British early animation ‘Red Riding Hood’ by Anson Dyer alongside Georges Méliès ‘Bluebeard’. As a body of work, this disc is truly amazing and well worth a look-in. It is beautiful, educational and brave. Stunning.

Claire Hyypiä