Thursday, September 7, 2023

I Discuss a Short From 1907

It was Satan at Play, which I discuss below: 

Seeing a 10 minutes short from Segundo de Chomon was ideal when I did not want to see something lengthy or write up anything extensive. In the past I’ve seen his two most famous works (The House of Ghosts and The Red Spectre), which are even more ideal for this time of year than Satan at Play. He was a contemporary of Georges Melies and the pair apparently inspired each other.

The premise is that Satan-a guy in a skeleton outfit but he wasn’t La Parka-visits Earth and causes chaos; “chaos” in this case is “magic tricks” and “a special effects showcase for the viewer” which involve various random people. The effects still look impressive for the time and are easily comparable to the SFX in a typical Melies short.

There isn’t much of a plot to speak of, but at least there are always macabre vibes present, especially with the surprise ending; yes, those were around since the dawn of filmmaking. It wasn’t my favorite from Chomon, yet it was the 1907 version of a demo reel.

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