''Le Rosier miraculeux'', released in the US as ''The Wonderful Rose-Tree'' and in the UK as '' The Magical Rose Tree'', is a 1904 French short silent film directed by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

Plot

According to Méliès's catalogue description:

Release and rediscovery

''The Wonderful Rose-Tree'', advertised as having been based on a legend from

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

, was released by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

and is numbered 634–636 in its catalogues. It was sold both in black-and-white and, at a higher price, in a

hand-coloured Hand-colouring (or hand-coloring) refers to any method of manually adding colour to a monochrome photograph, generally either to heighten the realism of the image or for artistic purposes. Hand-colouring is also known as hand painting or overpa ...

version. Méliès's catalogue says that the film "was made especially for coloring. Its charm and its delicate beauty are very materially enhanced by the intelligent and harmonious coloring of our artists." The film was registered for American copyright at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

on 11 October 1904. The film was presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

until the 2010s, when documentary filmmakers of '' Saving Brinton'' identified a single, damaged, but nearly complete black-and-white print in a collection that had belonged to Frank Brinton, a Midwestern American traveling showman of Méliès's era. The Brinton collection was also found to contain another Méliès film presumed lost, ''

The Triple-Headed Lady ''The Triple-Headed Lady'' (french: Bouquet d'illusions) is a 1901 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 334 in its catalogues. The film was presumed lost until 2014, when film ...

''. ''The Wonderful Rose-Tree'' was screened, for the first time since its rediscovery, at the

Pordenone Silent Film Festival Le Giornate del cinema muto (referred to in English as Pordenone Silent Film Festival) is an annual festival of silent film held in October in Pordenone, northern Italy. It is the first, largest and most important international festival dedicated ...

in 2017.

References

External links

* Films directed by Georges Méliès French black-and-white films French silent short films 1900s rediscovered films Rediscovered French films 1900s French films {{1900s-France-film-stub