THE HOUSE OF GHOSTS (LA MAISON ENSORCELÉE)
France, Spain , 1940 / 6 min / without words / silent film, fantasy
A fantastic short gem by the Spanish Georges Méliès.
At dusk, three weary wanderers, a woman and two men, cold and soaked to the bone from a dreadful and violent thunderstorm, seek refuge inside a dilapidated mansion. However, it is not before long that the secluded and seemingly vacant house will unveil its wrathful and sinister secrets.
The film, driven by outstanding effects work presented with wit and imagination, is considered to be one of the earliest cinematic depictions of a haunted house premise. It inspired director Jennifer Kent’s The Badabook (2014) in which a scene of House of Ghosts was included.
Production year of the film: 1907
| Fri | 13/03 | 12:30 | Cinémathèque | without words | Public |
Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz, generally credited as Segundo de Chomón, was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter born in 1871. Inspired by the work of Georges Méliès, he uses similar camera tricks and optical illusions in his inventive short films from 1901 on. Today, he is considered one of the pioneers of animated cinema. He directed his first films in Spain, before Pathé brought him to France. In 1905, he moved to Paris where he worked under the name of Chaumont (or sometimes Chomont). Segundo de Chomón helped develop the first proper Spanish film industry. His films often appealed to a wide audience thanks to many melodramas, zarzuelas (musical spectacles), historical dramas and comedies. Segundo de Chomón passed away in 1929.
- Incomplete (some of more than 250 films)
- 1923 – Lulù (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1913 – Excursion dans les Pyrénées espagnoles (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1913 – Excursion à Montserrat (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1913 – Le cottage hanté (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Métamorphoses (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Superstition andalouse (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – L'iris fantastique (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Pulgarcito (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – L'antique Tolède (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Barcelone, principale ville de la Catalogne (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Escamillo a le ver solitaire (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – La casa de los duendes (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1912 – Le génie du feu (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1907 – La maison ensorcelée (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1902 – El hada primavera (court-métrage / short / Kurzfilm)
- 1901 – Bajada de Montserrat (court-métrage documentaire / documentary short / Dokumentarkurzfilm)
