The Rajah's Dream or The Bewitched Wood (1900)
The picture opens with the Sultan lying down to rest on his luxurious cushioned couch. The scene changes to the grounds around the palace.
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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Blistering performances.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Many of George Melies's movies involve someone trying to get some sleep. Of course, the great director's fertile mind often worked best when dealing with dream worlds. In this one, an Indian rajah (sultan) tries to sleep. First an enormous butterfly distracts him, then his bed disappears and he finds himself outside. There he encounters disappearing benches, herds of women, and a devil who wants to sword-fight him. It's all pointless delight.
"The Rajah's Dream or The Bewitched Wood" or "Oh! What a Night; or, The Sultan's Dream" is a 2.5-minute French black-and-white silent movie from the year 1900 that was written by and directed by the master himself, Georges Méliès and he also plays the major character, gets help from a bunch of young women too. This movie is an example of how far ahead Méliès was around that time in terms of art direction and costumes. This looks really impressive for 1900 and, with today's means, especially color, it may have been on par with films of the 21st century in terms of set decoration. Unfortunately the story is not really that good or memorable in here as it is in some other works by the French filmmaking pioneer. Style over substance a bit.
Rajah's Dream, Thep (1900) ** 1/2 (out of 4) aka Le Reve du Radjah ou la foret enchantee The title pretty much sets up the story as a Rajah goes to sleep and then enters a dreamworld, which includes various gypsies and all sorts of magic. I think this is one of the director's weaker films as it really doesn't show us anything new and a lot of the magic tricks are just recreated without anything new or interesting being done. The film runs just over two minutes and unlike so many of the director's films there really isn't too much going on the entire time.