Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1908
The Genii of Fire
Buy The Genii of Fire now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Genii of Fire' is a 1908 French short silent film by Georges Mlis. It was sold by Mlis's Star Film Company and is numbered 10691072 in its catalogues.
Plot
A young man and woman, wandering a lushly forested landscape, come across a ruined temple. An old man at the entrance warns the couple not to enter the temple, but they disregard him in their curiosity. Inside, they are surrounded and trapped by temple priests, and they watch in horror as an imp-like spirit fills the temple with fire. The couple are blinded, and stumble back out of the temple, where the old man restores their sight.
Production
Mlis appears in the film as one of the three priests, with the actor Claudel as the young man. The film's set includes columns and scenic elements from two previous Mlis films, 'The Witch' (1906) and 'Sightseeing Through Whisky' (1907), and the costumes include a turban Mlis had worn in 'Delirium in a Studio' (1907). The film's special effects are created with stage machinery, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves.
In its exotic-temple setting, 'The Genii of Fire' is reminiscent of Mlis's earlier film 'The Oracle of Delphi' (1903). Motifs in both films suggest Masonic imagery; though Mlis was not a Freemason, he appears to have been familiar with some of its visual elements, if only through stage spectaculars in the style of Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'. In addition, Mlis's father was a member of the Compagnons du Devoir, a non-Masonic craftsmen's guild with some initiation rites.
References
Buy The Genii of Fire now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1908