Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
If you compare this 1909 6-minute movie to Georges Méliès, you will see that they have basically nothing in common anymore. the reason was probably that film was developing so quickly into new directions that the old legends had trouble to keep up with the medium. First of all, this is not a one man show anymore like almost everything else he did. Actually Méliès own son plays a character here. And then there are the colors of course, probably the most innovative factor. Still, all of this did not really save this film. I was not too impressed watching this and certainly do not consider it among Méliès finest works. This was already almost at the end of Méliès career and when a couple years later sound became a factor, he did not go along with the new changes, but simply stopped making movies. But it's fine that way. he still left us an admirable body of work. Nonetheless, I do not consider "The Diabolic Tenant" among his most outstanding achievements.
Red-Barracuda
This latter day George Méliès film is basically another of his trick shorts. In it a man moves into an unfurnished room and proceeds to decorate it with a selection of furniture and family members which he improbably pulls out of a small bag. Like all of the director's inventive shorts it's very well presented. And fully colour tinted as well, which is a great bonus. The special effects are simple yet effective and carefully rendered. Like other Méliès features it has a good sense of humour too. However, when you take into account the more elaborate narrative features that Méliès had already produced several years before, such as A Trip to the Moon and Kingdom of the Fairies, this does seem like quite regressive. Maybe it indicates why this famous innovator's career never really evolved any further, as he seemed to be essentially still making the same sort of films at a time of great change and evolution in the cinematic medium in general. A great shame, as he was easily the greatest presence in cinema in first decade of its existence. That said, this is still a very fun flick and one that is still a lot more fun to watch than most others from the time.
Michael_Elliott
Devilish Tenant, The (1909) aka Locataire diabolique, Le *** (out of 4)Georges Melies film about a man who rents an apartment and furnishes the entire thing with one box. It's easy to see how the trickery was done in this film but that doesn't take away from the fun. The real highlight is the wonderful ending of how the man finally gets rid of everything.In early 2008 a box set with over 170 Meiles films will be released and it's certainly long overdue.
Snow Leopard
This colorful and creative Georges Méliès feature takes a basic gag idea and uses it as the basis for several minutes of interesting and entertaining camera tricks. It is also one of the few surviving Méliès movies that have hand-tinted color, and while the color of the print has now somewhat faded, it still looks good enough to enhance the overall effect.The story starts with a man renting an unfurnished room, and then most of it is simply a wide variety of visual effects as the tenant furnishes his new apartment with things that he amazingly pulls out of a carpetbag. It's interesting and very detailed, and if you've ever seen "Mary Poppins", the basic effect is remarkably similar to the scene in which Mary moves into the Banks home and furnishes her room. The special effects in Méliès's movie are not as polished, but on the other hand it gets even more mileage out of the idea.This feature was made somewhat later than were most of Méliès's best-known movies, but it's easily one of the finest efforts of his later years as a film-maker. It takes one basic idea and makes it into an interesting and imaginative film.
AD
