''The Oracle of Delphi'' (french: L'Oracle de Delphes) is a 1903 French 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 ...

. It 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 476 in its catalogues.

Plot

In ancient Egypt, two priests deposit an ornate box inside a temple, locking the doors behind them. After their departure, a thief breaks into the temple and steals the box, but he is caught by a mysteriously appearing bearded figure. The bearded man retrieves the box and gives life to the two sphinx statues placed at the doors. The sphinxes appear as living women and attack the thief, whose head turns immediately into a donkey's head. The sphinxes turn back into statues, the bearded man disappears, and the donkey-thief is left sitting astonished on the ground.

Production

Méliès plays the thief in the film. Though the title refers to the Oracle of Delphi, a high priestess in

Ancient Greek religion Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. The application of the modern concept of "religion" to ancient cultures has been ...

, the sets and costumes instead indicate an Ancient Egyptian setting. The palanquin and box props, in turn, were later reused for still another setting, the eclectic

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

of Méliès's film '' The Palace of the Arabian Nights'' (1905). The special effects techniques in the film include

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 as well as dissolving multiple exposures.

Versions

Méliès's pre-1903 films, especially the popular ''

A Trip to the Moon ''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and its 1870 s ...

'', were frequently pirated by American producers such as Siegmund Lubin. In order to combat the piracy, Méliès opened an American branch of his

and began producing two negatives of each film he made: one for domestic markets, and one for foreign release. To produce the two separate negatives, Méliès built a special camera that used two lenses and two reels of film simultaneously. In the 2000s, researchers at the French film company Lobster Films noticed that Méliès's two-lens system was in effect an unintentional, but fully functional, stereo film camera, and therefore that 3D versions of Méliès films could be made simply by combining the domestic and foreign prints of the film. Serge Bromberg, the founder of Lobster Films, presented 3D versions of ''The Oracle of Delphi'' and another 1903 Méliès film, '' The Infernal Cauldron'', at a January 2010 presentation at the Cinémathèque Française. According to the film critic Kristin Thompson, "the effect of 3D was delightful … the films as synchronized by Lobster looked exactly as if Méliès had designed them for 3D." Bromberg screened both films again—as well as the 1906 Méliès film ''

The Mysterious Retort ''L'Alchimiste Parafaragaramus ou la Cornue infernale'', released in the United States as ''The Mysterious Retort'' and in Britain as ''The Alchemist and the Demon'', is a 1906 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by M ...

'', similarly prepared for 3D—at a September 2011 presentation at the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oracle Of Delphi 1903 films 1900s 3D films 1903 short films French 3D films French silent short films Films directed by Georges Méliès 3D short films French black-and-white films Films set in ancient Egypt Trick films