The Dream of an Opium Fiend
The Dream of an Opium Fiend (French: Le Rêve d'un fumeur d'opium) is a 1908 French short silent film credited to and featuring Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 1081–1085 in its catalogues.[1]
| The Dream of an Opium Fiend | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Georges Méliès or Manuel |
| Starring |
|
Production company | |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
Méliès plays the Chinese servant in the film, and a Mademoiselle Bodson plays the maidservant. An analysis in a Centre national de la cinématographie (CNC) guide to Méliès's films concludes that the film was probably supervised by a colleague of Méliès, an actor known as Manuel. Nonetheless, it features both Méliès and several motifs common in Méliès's earlier films; for example, here as elsewhere in Méliès's filmography, the Moon is personified both as a beautiful woman and a grimacing head.[2] Special effects in the film were created with stage machinery, rolling scenery, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves.[2]
The CNC analysis notes that although this title suggests Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, a 1906 American trick film by Edwin S. Porter, the plots are completely different. Porter's film, on the other hand, strongly implies a Méliès influence, particularly recalling The Bewitched Inn (1897) and The Inn Where No Man Rests (1903).[2]
A print of the film survives, though some frames may be missing from the end.[2]
References
- Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 352, ISBN 9782732437323
- Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, pp. 297–98, ISBN 2903053073
