The Spider and the Butterfly

The Spider and the Butterfly (French: Papillon fantastique) is a 1909 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès.

The Spider and the Butterfly
Production still from the film
Directed byGeorges Méliès
StarringGeorges Méliès
Production
company
Release date
  • 1909 (1909)
Running time
80 meters[1]
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Production

Méliès plays the magician in the film.[2]

Release and survival

The Spider and the Butterfly was released by Méliès's Star Film Company, and is numbered 1530–1533 in its catalogues.[1]

The end of Méliès's filmmaking career was marked by mounting financial difficulties, forcing him eventually to close his studio.[3] In 1923, Méliès discarded his collection of negative and positive prints for his films.[4] After living forgotten and in poverty for some years, Méliès was rediscovered by film devotées in the late 1920s.[5] On 16 December 1929,[6] a "Gala Méliès" was held at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, reintroducing Méliès and his work to posterity.[4]

The Gala Méliès included projection of eight Méliès films that had managed to be recovered,[4] including The Spider and the Butterfly (the others were Whimsical Illusions, The Diabolic Tenant, The Wandering Jew, A Trip to the Moon, Baron Munchausen's Dream, The Merry Frolics of Satan, and The Conquest of the Pole).[6] After the Gala, the print of The Spider and the Butterfly went missing once again;[6] it was presumed lost as of 2008.[1] A fragment of the film was rediscovered in time to be included in a 2010 DVD collection of some of Méliès's films.[7]

References
  1. Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 355, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 281
  3. Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., pp. 46–48, ISBN 0816183686
  4. Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 10
  5. Frazer 1979, p. 55
  6. Cosandey, Roland (1997), "L'inescamotable escamoteur ou Méliès en ses figures", in Malthête, Jacques; Marie, Michel (eds.), Georges Méliès, l'illusionniste fin de siècle?: actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 13–22 août 1996, Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, pp. 65–66, ISBN 9782878541403
  7. Méliès, Georges (2010), Georges Méliès: Encore (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 978-1893967564
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