Georges Méliès was a brilliant director and innovator. While his films might seem a bit quaint today, in his times, he did more to improve films than anyone...period. His fantasy films still hold up reasonably well today and are quite charming. Not surprisingly, his genius is celebrated in the new Scorsese film "Hugo". In the world today, there are very, very few people who have seen more of his films than I have. This isn't boasting--more just stating that I have an obsession with his work and have sought out as many of his short films as is humanly possible. Because of this, I have a very good idea what is his best and what is his less than best work. "A Terrible Night", while mildly amusing, is clearly not among his best work. While it actually tells a bit of a story (and many film in 1896 really didn't), the story is very scant and overdone--even by standards of the day. It simply consists of a guy (like most of his films, Georges Méliès himself) in bed when a HUGE bug crawls over him. He then smashes the bug and jumps around smashing what you assume are the bug's babies. That's really it. On the plus side, the bug on a string did have independently moving appendages--but it's still just a bug on a string.
Review of Une nuit terrible
