This is a short one today. I discuss 1908's The Electric Hotel:
For those unfamiliar with the game from influential Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomin… my schedule only allowed a review of something short. As he was a contemporary of Georges Melies (typically, both created pictures full of camera/editing tricks along w/ plenty of phantasmagoria as there were wild sets, usually bizarre creatures, demons, ghosts, etc.), Chomin deserves more attention from cinephiles. The three from the director I’ve seen before last night fit this category: Legend of a Ghost, The Red Spectre, and The Bewitched House.
The Electric Hotel is by contrast a light-hearted silly thing. What they mean by “electric” is “when a couple check into the hotel, every item-including ones that they own-becomes sentient & via stop-motion, the viewer sees the likes of tables, razors, clothing, & brushes moving on their own.” To steal a line that more than one mutual uttered in their reviews, “it’s more like the hotel is haunted.”
This plus a funny last minute that’s a great punchline meant that this was a delightful 9 minutes. Those that enjoy the output of Melies yet have never given the works of Segundo de Chomin a shot—you might become a fan
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