| Le Royaume des fées | |
|---|---|
 A frame from the film | |
| Directed by | Georges Méliès |
| Written by | Georges Méliès |
| Produced by | Georges Méliès |
| Starring | Bleuette Bernon Georges Méliès |
Release date |
|
Running time | 320 meters[1] (16-17 minutes) |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
The Kingdom of the Fairies (French:Le Royaume des fées),[2][3] initially released in the United States asFairyland, or the Kingdom of the Fairies and in Great Britain asThe Wonders of the Deep, or Kingdom of the Fairies,[1] is a 1903 Frenchsilenttrick film directed byGeorges Méliès.
The film historianGeorges Sadoul suggested that the film was freely adapted fromLa Biche au Bois, a popularféerie by the brothers Goignard, which had been first produced in March 1845 at theThéâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin and which was frequently revived throughout the nineteenth century.[4] A publication on Méliès's films by theCentre national du cinéma citesCharles Perrault's story "Sleeping Beauty" as the most direct inspiration for the film, with the seven fairies in that tale reduced to four.[4]
The film's cast includesGeorges Méliès as Prince Bel-Azor, Marguerite Thévenard as Princess Azurine, andBleuette Bernon as the fairyAurora.[5] Sadoul, examining a production still from the film, identified the actor Durafour as a supporting player.[5]
While most of the film was shot indoors, the nuptial cortege scene near the end was filmed outdoors in Méliès's garden, with a real horse.[4] Special effects in the film were created withstage machinery, rollingpanoramas,miniature models,pyrotechnics,substitution splices,superimpositions, anddissolves.[4]
The Kingdom of the Fairies was released by Méliès'sStar Film Company and is numbered 483–498 in its catalogues.[1] (In Méliès's numbering system, films were listed and numbered according to their order of production, and each catalogue number denotes about 20 meters of film.)[6] The film was registered for American copyright at theLibrary of Congress on 3 September 1903.[1]
According to the Méliès scholar John Frazer, the film was "the most ambitious Star Film production to date" and "was widely distributed and heavily promoted."[7] An originalfilm score was prepared for the film's projection in larger cities.[7] As with at least 4% of Méliès's entire output (including such films asA Trip to the Moon,The Impossible Voyage,The Rajah's Dream, andThe Barber of Seville), some prints were individuallyhand-colored and sold at a higher price.[8]
The Kingdom of the Fairies, like Méliès's similarly spectacular filmsA Trip to the Moon (1902) andThe Impossible Voyage (1904), was one of the most popular films of the first few years of the twentieth century.[9] WhenThomas L. Tally debuted the film at his Lyric Theater in Los Angeles in 1903 (billing it as "Better thanA Trip to the Moon"), theLos Angeles Times called the film "an interesting exhibit of the limits to which moving picture making can be carried in the hands of experts equipped with time and money to carry out their devices."[10]
The film theoristJean Mitry called it "undoubtedly Méliès's best film, and in any case the most intensely poetic."[11]
Prints of the film survive in the film archives of theBritish Film Institute and theLibrary of Congress.[12]
