Cinderella (1899) User Reviews

A pretty good adaption of the fairy tale

[williambendavis-933-218958 · 7/10 · 22 December 2014]

There was an adaptation of Cinderella all the way back in 1899. Who knew? It's pretty good. So good in fact that I'm going to go ahead and predict that this is going to be a 100x better than the live action version Disney's releasing. Anyway, George Méliès manages to tell the story without cutting anything major out. It has the fairy godmother transforming the mice into knights (I think they were knights) and the pumpkin into a carriage, it has the ball, it has the clock striking midnight, it as the Prince looking for Cinderella, and it has the happy ending we've come to expect from fairy tale adaptations. All that was accomplished way back in 1899. If that isn't amazing, then I don't know what is. The only part I didn't like was the part I didn't understand. It was the part directly after the clock strikes midnight. It had Cinderella in her house with all these old guys dancing around with clocks. I don't know what that was all about, but it doesn't really affect my overall opinion of this short.

A Nicely Done Rendition

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 10 November 2017]

The Cinderella story is pretty universal. She is a drudge and her sisters treat her badly. She wants to go to the ball........well we all know. What separates this from Melieu's other works is a really nice use of transitions. There is also a joyfulness. The story is compacted but we get to see the wedding an a really cool dance scene at the end. This one is five minutes and Melieu is stretching his muscles.

Nice Version

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 12 July 2019]

This is a nice and quick version of the Cinderella story... it's worth watching if you have 6 minutes to spare for it. Not all the story is shown but it get to the point of the story fast - too bad this one wasn't a bit longer.

8/10

Dissolving Scenes

[Cineanalyst · 9 September 2009]

This is likely the most advanced story film of the 19th Century. In the print available on DVD today, there are four distinct scenes with dissolves as transitions. The popularity of this film encouraged its creator Georges Méliès to continue making similar longer story films; "Cinderella" is the first of what early cinema historians have termed Féeries (or fairy films), to distinguish them from the generally shorter, less narrative-driven trick films, which Méliès and others also made many of. Central to the fairy film is, of course, the fairy godmother. She (played here, as with other such films, by Méliès's lover Jeanne d'Alcy) is the magician-director's surrogate, creating the tricks and manipulating the narrative. Subsequent Méliès Féeries would be more polished and elaborate, including "Bluebeard" (1901), "Kingdom of the Fairies" (1903) and, to an extent, "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), although it doesn't feature a central fairy godmother. "Cinderella", however, is an important landmark for getting these story films started.

The film is also generally credited as the first to feature dissolves as transitions—a device that has its antecedent in magic lantern shows. Because of it, many early filmmakers adopted this technique (done in camera back then, by the way), including Ferdinand Zecca and the Pathé Company and, for a while, even Edwin S. Porter. Direct cuts didn't become the dominant scene transition until a few years later, once the story film became common and other modern continuity and narrative techniques came into use. Most films of the 19th Century consisted of a single shot-scene (mostly actualities, which were popularized by the Lumiére Company). The earliest two-scene fictional story subject I know of was from the previous year, "Come Along Do!" (1898) (only the first scene of this survives today), which is suspected to have used a direct cut. Dissolves would prove to be too discontinuous of a transition, but they work just as well for the stagy, stationary shot-scene style of narrative introduced by Méliès. Notably, another early story film pioneer, George Albert Smith, was already experimenting with direct cuts and insert shots in 1899, as evidenced by "The Kiss in the Tunnel".

Another relic of its time, the scene after the hour of midnight, in Cinderella's bedroom, sort of features two scenes in one. There's the dance of the clocks nightmare and then a jump cut to the sudden appearance of Cinderella's stepsisters being in the same room with the prince knocking at the door, for the prince and the slipper scene. The final scene is also a two-in-one, but not as jarringly disjointed, since it uses theatrical set transitions to reveal the final tableaux, a truly theatrical carryover. Indeed, this cinematic version was inspired by stage adaptations.

Part of the first scene offers a brief glimpse of what this film looked like hand-colored (most of Méliès's films were hand-colored, or offered to be at extra cost, as were many other early films); the rest of the remaining footage survives in black and white. From the beginning and throughout the short film, Méliès shows off his typical trick effects, mostly substitution-splices (or stop-substitutions) here, in addition to theatrical tricks. The best part, I think, is the dance of the clocks nightmare, which terrorizes Cinderella.

Méliès made another version of Cinderella in 1912, available in the same Flicker Alley set, but that one doesn't have the historical weight of this. Also, see the Mary Pickford 1914 "Cinderella" for an interesting comparison of clock nightmares.

(Note: This film was considered for many years to be partially or entirely lost. Some sources say the original film was as long as 2,000 feet, which is difficult to believe. Other historians give the more believable listing of around 120 meters (or nearly 400 feet) (Richard Abel, "The Ciné Goes to Town", gives this length), which seems to be about the length of the film available today, which lasts under 6 minutes. The print shows its age, with some deterioration, but is quite viewable.)

Cendrillion is whimsical in nature and more lavish than a glass slipper.

[TheMovieDiorama · 7/10 · 14 November 2018]

The earliest known adaptation of Perrault's fairy tale. One of the first films to utilise multiple scenes. The first use of the "dissolve transition" technique. And the only film in the 1800s (from what I've seen) to physically convey a story through a cohesive narrative. Cendrillon was a milestone for both cinema and Méliès. Granted, you will most likely need to know the source material first as this short film is somewhat illusory for its own good. And yes, some scenes were unnecessarily long just to showcase the innovative production design, particularly the entirety of Méliès as the genie of the midnight clock (absolutely cuckoo, if you pardon the pun). However the basic narrative outline is present, with Méliès conveying vital plot points whilst evoking pure imagination. You just have to give him credit for condensing a story into six minutes, even at the consequence of losing character depth. The pioneering editing allows the film to have that little additional essence of magic. The acting was splendidly exaggerative and contemporaneous, where Méliès had to employ a Chief Extra just to manage all of the over extras. Grand, lavishly designed and quite simply extraordinary. His first endeavour into narratively-charged films would lead him to create his magnum opus three years later.

Bibbety Bobbety Boo

[boblipton · 10/10 · 13 March 2008]

This is the earliest surviving of Melies super-productions -- the best known one, of course, is his Trip to the Moon -- and the story begins right where Melies can strut his stuff with the appearance of the Fairy Godmother. Some of the earliest sequences are beautifully hand-tinted.

Of greater technical interest is Melies' experimentation with film grammar: he uses a fade to get from Cinderella's garret to the ball. And of course, there are lots of his combinations of stage and film magic, as mice are transformed into footmen, pumpkins appear out of nowhere and the fairy godmother leaves by being lowered into the stage. Tremendous fun and far more watchable than any other version through the 1920s.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

Thankfully I knew the story.

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 14 October 2013]

because if you watch this short film without knowing at all what the Cinderella tale is about, you'd quickly be lost and that's never a good thing for a film. It needs to tell us a story that we understand and while Méliès manages most of the time to do so, this one proved too big of a challenger. Visually, however, it's as nice as always with him, especially the hand-colored fairy all dressed in red. The little bearded man with the clocks implying time runs out was a bit of an oddity. I'm not exactly certain if he appears in the tale or if it was just one of Méliès' funnily odd inventions. Good addition in any case. Most of the aspects of the story are depicted convincingly if you know it beforehand. One thing though that i really wasn't too fond of was the huge dance near the end. Should have ended after the weeding IMO. Still a decent work and you could see Méliès and film industry in 1906 slowly opened up to longer movies. This was a step ahead.

Amazing for 1899

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 1 July 2009]

My score of 10 is relative to other productions during this very early era in film as well as director Georges Méliès' other films. If you were to compare it to later silent films, then CENDRILLON will come up very, very short due to its very archaic style. And this type of comparison just wouldn't be fair, as non-stationary cameras, composition and detailed scripts were well in the future. But, for 1899, this is amazing because it introduces dissolves to go from one scene to another, a plot telling an actual story, as well as actual sets--things not used much around 1900. Most of the films circa 1900 were dull and short--only a minute or two long and featured people doing horribly mundane things--like feeding a baby or watering the lawn (seriously).

Now this story, while amazing for 1899, is not without many problems. The first portion that set the context for the story seems to either be missing or Méliès just assumed the audience understood it and skipped it. Also, while the first moments of the film are hand-colored, this disappears very quickly--perhaps it comes from piecing two or more copies together to make this film. And additionally, at times the people had no idea what to do, so they did some weird things--like have lots and lots of clocks and elves (why?!?!) as well as a somewhat impromptu dance number at the end. Rough? Yes, but still compared to what else was out there, this was the best sort of film available...period. For film historians, this and the rest of Méliès' films are a must.

By the way, to see just how far films had progressed, try also watching the 1914 version starring Mary Pickford. It stands up much better today and is a truly magnificent film even almost a hundred years later.

Cinderella

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

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.

Revolutionary, and a great Melies feature

[martinpersson97 · 9/10 · 19 November 2023]

Georges Melies is definitely one of the pioneers of early cinema, and remains one of my all time favourite filmmakers. His unique and imaginative vision can not be overstated, and its effect on the industry as a whole.

This is one of his earliest films, and one of the first ever fantasy features. It is all conveyed beautifully in its short run time, Melies plays with revolutionary scenery and acting in splendid ways.

The transitions are beautiful, very revolutionary and beautiful cinematography and editing. Truly wonderfully cut and shot. You can very much see his style taking form.

Overall, indeed a very recommended early fictional feature! Should be enjoyed by any lover of film.

One of the first multi-scene productions ever made

[Tornado_Sam · 11 October 2018]

I didn't say "the first multi-scene production ever made", and for a very simple reason: the earliest multi-scene short was actually made a year prior to this one in the form of Robert Paul's "Come Along Do!" from 1898. Unfortunately, as that short only partially survives as a thirty-second fragment, it is frequently forgotten as such with more recognition given to this Cinderella adaptation. Early filmmakers had long been contemplating how to accomplish multi-scene story structures, with such shorts as W. K. L. Dickson's "Rip van Winkle" of 1896, but because they hadn't fully discovered the way of going about such filmmaking yet, they'd often just shoot each scene separately as its own film. In doing so, this would make these multi-scene films into serials (the first ones ever, actually) which really don't qualify as an entire movie. Attempted story films such as the aforementioned "Rip van Winkle" by Dickson, Georges Hatot's "La Vie et la Passion de Jésus-Christ" of 1898 and even Méliès's "The Dreyfus Affair" (1899, amusingly enough almost right before this movie) all use this technique without creating an actual short. In fact, because the Méliès serial was made almost right before this, (with his lost film "The Snow Man" separating the two) one has to wonder if Méliès was trying to change the serial way of filming multi-scene stories when he made "Cinderella".

The four (or is it five?) scene movie is, of course, still quite short when looking at it today, but at the time six minutes was just about full-length. It really doesn't seem to cover the entire story, such as the cruelty of the stepsisters (I've looked at the original Star Film Catalogue, and it doesn't indicate that anything at the beginning is missing), so I suppose Méliès felt he had the right to skip a few minor parts. For what it is, though, it is good, including even a few small touches, such as the appearance of Father Time (played by the director himself) the dancing clocks, and the dance scene at the end. As Frazer points out in "Artificially Arranged Scenes", many of Méliès's multi-scene narratives, such as the apotheosis and said ending dance in here, all reflect the stage productions from that time. No doubt he felt a theatrical grande finale was in order and that the movie shouldn't just 'end'. Thus, he was no doubt appealing to audiences tastes in that bygone era.

In addition, a small fraction of film (part of the opening sequence) appears to have been hand-colored. While almost all of Méliès's work in his entire career was colored by Mme. Elisabeth Thuillier, a french colorist who hired about two hundred female workers to paint in each frame on a filmstrip, I have read nothing at all about her having worked on this particular short. Because of this, I presume the colorized fraction available today is probably the work of Albert E. Smith's team of workers at Vitagraph, who apparently bought the short to release in America and create colored prints. I am not sure if the surviving print uses a hand-colored fragment and some black-and-white copies to create a complete short, or if this is one print which was only started and given up on. If the latter is correct (it may not be since a few seconds of the beginning are black-and-white before the color kicks in) I could see why they gave up so quickly. Hand-painting was a very tedious process, since a minute of film for Méliès was about twenty meters, and each frame of it had to be colored in. It's a process even I myself have tried, so far producing poor results, and compared to what I've done the coloring in here is incredibly well-done and manages to stay within the lines. How do they do it? It's too bad they didn't persist in finishing it off.

Also, while I mentioned before that nothing at the beginning appears to be missing, I think there could be a bit at the end that doesn't survive. Méliès's Star Film Catalogue lists the various tableaus, and I perceive that a few are not in the available print. A tableau listed as "The Wedding" is not apparent, as neither is "Cinderella's Sisters" (which might have featured them pleading for forgiveness as in Méliès's later 1912 version), "The King, Queen, and Lords", "The Nuptial Cortege", "The Celestial Spheres" or "The Transformation". As Mr. Frazer has pointed out in "Artificially Arranged Scenes", a tabeau meant either a entire scene or an event occurring within a scene. With "Cinderella", the latter appears to be the case, so there might be only one scene missing that record all these events. As it is, I have not found any indication between the surviving sections that anything's missing. Does the procession at the church feature all the ending tableaus that appear not to be there, and each ending tableau is merely a description of the various members in the procession? If so, where's the said celestial spheres in the procession? What's the transformation of the second-to-last tableau? I have no clue, so the absence of these missing tableaus will have to remain a mystery until further evidence is uncovered.

A later version of this movie from 1912, mentioned previously and also made by Méliès, also attempts to capture Perrault's story in a much more detailed way without rushing the events, yet it remains even less known because of being too stagy by the standards of 1912. I have yet to make a comparison between the shorts, but this will no doubt occur when I get around to writing a review on that version. As for this one, it's literally the most sophisticated film of the 19th century when it comes to visuals, story, and structure. This not a serial...it's a full movie, and even proves it when you notice how each scene is connected by a dissolve instead of a cut.