''Satan in Prison'' (french: Satan en prison) is a 1907 French

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

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 ...

. The film tells the story of an imprisoned man (played by Méliès himself) who turns out to be the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

in disguise.

Plot

The film features Méliès in a room which is intended to be a cell and he finds ways to cure his boredom by performing tricks, such as vanishing and magically appearing picture frames and sudden appearing fireplaces and dinner tables with wine. Towards the end of the film he appears as Satan and tricks his guards by disappearing in a blanket. Satan in Prison 3.jpg Satan in Prison 2.jpg Satan in Prison 1.jpg

Production and release

Méliès, who had begun his performing career as a successful stage magician, often featured the Devil in his films, taking advantage of the character's possibilities as a creator of strange magical happenings. In ''Satan in Prison'', as was his usual practice, Méliès himself appears as the Devil. The film's

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

were created with

pyrotechnic Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolition. ...

s and

substitution splice The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining th ...

s. Méliès filmed an expanded version of the same idea, with many of the same props but with more characters and a more elaborate narrative, two years later as ''

The Diabolic Tenant ''The Diabolic Tenant'' (french: Le Locataire diabolique), originally released in English-speaking countries as ''The Fiendish Tenant'', is a 1909 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Com ...

''. ''Satan in Prison'' was sold 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 numbered 1010–1013 in its catalogues.

References

External links

* 1907 films French black-and-white films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films French science fiction films The Devil in film Silent horror films 1900s French films {{1900s-France-film-stub