The Mysterious Knight
About The Mysterious Knight
A knight in a medieval room works a trick with a head. He draws on a chalkboard, and a living head appears, then speaks from a vase. The head is a double exposure: the film was rewound in the camera and the set was masked with black cloth. Georges Méliès plays the knight.
Cast & crew
More about The Mysterious Knight
Georges Méliès directed, produced, and played the knight for Star Film. Catalogue numbers 226–227. The French title is Le Chevalier mystère. Released in 1899. The catalogue length is 40 metres, listed at 2 minutes. A print runs 1 minute and 27 seconds. The picture was treated as lost until a copy was identified at George Eastman House. A restored print was shown at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 1989.
Themes
Making
Méliès rewound the negative, re-exposed it, and hid the unwanted half of the set with black cloth so the head could sit in the vase.
Technique
Multiple exposure, with the stock rewound in the camera and black cloth masking the set, puts a talking head in a vase.
Preservation
Presumed lost until a print turned up at George Eastman House. Restored, and premiered at Pordenone in 1989. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The same head trick, with three copies of his own head, is in The Four Troublesome Heads.
- Other Méliès films that detach a living head include The Man with the Rubber Head and The Melomaniac.
- The medieval dress is a joke setting for the trick, not a chronicle. His Joan of Arc (1900) is the plot-driven medieval film beside it.
Scenes
- The knight draws, and a head comes off the chalkboard.
- The head speaks from a vase while the rest of the set stays empty around it.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Chevalier mystère.webm)
