The Kingdom of the Fairies
About The Kingdom of the Fairies
At court, a prince presents Princess Azurine, whom he is pledged to marry. A witch is driven off, then returns with her servants and carries the princess into a realm the rescuers cannot enter without help. The film closes with a wedding procession.
Cast & crew
More about The Kingdom of the Fairies
Georges Méliès directed, wrote, and produced it for Star Film. The catalog numbers are 483–498. The length is 320 meters. Most of it was shot indoors, with stage machinery, rolling panoramas, miniatures, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, superimpositions, and dissolves. The wedding procession was filmed outdoors in Méliès's garden, with a real horse. Some prints were hand-colored. The United States title was Fairyland, or the Kingdom of the Fairies. The British title was The Wonders of the Deep, or Kingdom of the Fairies.
Themes
Making
The procession is the one scene taken outside: a horse and a cortege in the garden at Montreuil, not a painted flat.
Look
Méliès shot most of the film on an indoor stage. The wedding cortege uses a real horse in his garden.
Technique
The trick work uses substitution splices, superimpositions, dissolves, rolling panoramas, miniature models, and pyrotechnics. Some release prints were hand-colored.
Preservation
Prints are held by the British Film Institute and the Library of Congress.
Notes
- The French title is Le Royaume des fées.
- Marguerite Thévenard plays Princess Azurine. Bleuette Bernon is in the cast. Méliès appears. Durafour is named as a supporting player.
- Méliès drew on the féerie La Biche au bois, first staged in 1845 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, and on Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, cutting the fairies from seven to four.
- Prints survive at the British Film Institute and the Library of Congress.
Scenes
- The witch breaks into the betrothal and is driven out.
- She returns and takes Princess Azurine.
- The wedding procession passes through Méliès's garden on a real horse.
Influenced by
- La Biche au bois (1845 féerie)
- Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Royaume des fées (Georges Méliès, 1903).webm)
