''Hôtel électrique'' (also released in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

as ; ) is a 1908 silent French comedy-fantasy film directed by

Segundo de Chomón Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé, Pat ...

and produced by

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

. The short appears to be inspired by the 1907 American short film ''

The Haunted Hotel ''The Haunted Hotel '' is a 1907 American silent short comedy film written, produced, and directed by J. Stuart Blackton. One of the oldest surviving animated films, it combines live action and stop motion to animate objects. Plot The film start ...

''.

Plot

Laure and Bertrand arrive at the Electric Hotel, where a control board allows inanimate objects to come to life. For most of the film, the effects are used to perform tasks such as polishing shoes, styling hair and putting away luggage, to the two guests' great pleasure. At the end, a drunken concierge erratically throws switches that cause the system to go haywire, sending all of the hotel's furniture into a jumbled, chaotic mess.

Background

The film displays one of the earliest uses of

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

in history, though it is not de Chomón's first try at this technique: his 1906 film, ''Le théâtre de Bob'', uses animated puppets. However, ''Hôtel électrique'' is also an early use of

pixilation Pixilation is a stop motion technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor beco ...

Julienne Mathieu having her hair brushed

Cast

as Bertrand *

Julienne Mathieu Julienne Alexandrine Mathieu ( - ) was one of the earliest French silent film actresses who appeared mostly in French silents between 1905 and 1909. She appeared in the silent film '' Hôtel électrique'' released in 1908, one of the first films ...

as Laure *

References

3. Smith, Dominic (2019). "The Electric Hotel". Published by Sarah Crichton Books; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. .

External links

* * 1908 films 1908 animated films 1900s fantasy comedy films 1900s science fiction films 1900s stop-motion animated films French fantasy comedy films Films directed by Segundo de Chomón Films using stop-motion animation French silent short films Spanish fantasy comedy films Spanish short films Spanish silent films 1900s rediscovered films Spanish black-and-white films French black-and-white films Spanish science fiction films Rediscovered French films Silent comedy films Silent science fiction films {{short-silent-film-stub