''The Mysterious Knight'' (French: ''Le Chevalier mystère'') is an 1899 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 trick 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 ...

Themes

''The Mysterious Knight'' is a trick film in which motifs from the European

Medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

are used satirically as a setting for cinematic

special effect 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 ...

s. This was one of two Medieval-themed genres in the silent cinema, both of which were developed and codified by Méliès himself; the other was a less overtly whimsical, more plot-oriented genre of narrative film telling medieval stories, such as Méliès's 1900 epic ''

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...

''. Both types of Medieval film invented by Méliès were extensively influential, quickly spreading to the United States and other filmmaking countries. The medieval trick film genre was a particularly decisive influence, leading eventually to the development of animated medieval films as well as to medieval epics that use

computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...

for spectacular purposes. The film is also one of many Méliès works featuring living body parts becoming detached from the rest of the body. Other examples include ''

The Man with the Rubber Head ''The Man with the Rubber Head'' (french: L'Homme à la tête en caoutchouc), also known as ''A Swelled Head'', is a 1901 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. The film stars Méliès himself as an apothecary who blows a copy of his own he ...

'', ''

The Infernal Cake Walk ''Le Cake-Walk infernal'', sold in the United States as ''The Cake Walk Infernal'' and in Britain as ''The Infernal Cake Walk'', is a 1903 French short film, short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and i ...

'', and ''

The Melomaniac ''The Melomaniac'' (french: Le Mélomane) is a 1903 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Plot A music master leads his band to a field where five telegraph lines are strung on utility poles. Hoisting up a giant treble clef, he turns ...

''.

Production

The special effect of the talking head in a vase was created using multiple exposure, with the

film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent p ...

was rewound in the camera and reexposed. Black cloth was used to mask the set when the head was filmed. Méliès performed a similar trick, with three duplications of his own head, in his film ''

The Four Troublesome Heads ''The Four Troublesome Heads'' (french: Un homme de têtes, literally "A Man of Heads"), also known as ''Four Heads Are Better Than One'', is an 1898 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Plot A magician enters the frame and stands ...

''.

Release and survival

The film 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 226–227 in its catalogues. It 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 a print was identified in the vaults of the

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

. In 1989, a restored print of the film was premiered at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

References

External links

*
''The Mysterious Knight''
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mysterious Knight, The 1899 films French silent short films French black-and-white films Films directed by Georges Méliès Trick films 1890s rediscovered films Rediscovered French films 1899 short films 1890s French films