''The Rajah's Dream'' (French: ''Le rêve du radjah ou La forêt enchantée'') is a short

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 ...

created and released in 1900 and 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 ...

. As with at least 4% of Méliès's entire output (including such films as ''

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 ...

'', ''

The Impossible Voyage ''The Impossible Voyage'' (french: Le Voyage à travers l'impossible), also known as ''An Impossible Voyage'' and ''Whirling the Worlds'', is a 1904 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by Jules Verne's play '' Journey Thr ...

'', ''

The Kingdom of the Fairies ''The Kingdom of the Fairies'' (french: Le Royaume des fées), initially released in the United States as ''Fairyland, or the Kingdom of the Fairies'' and in Great Britain as ''The Wonders of the Deep, or Kingdom of the Fairies'', is a 1903 Fren ...

'', and ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...

''), some prints were individually

hand-colored 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 ...

and sold at a higher price.

Plot

A Rajah grows tired and falls asleep. A large butterfly disturbs him and flies around his room. He tries to capture it with a large net, but no avail. Frustrated, he tosses the net aside and tries to go back to sleep, but his room disappears and he is now in a park. Puzzled, he goes to sit on a nearby chair, but it goes to the other side of the area. He then goes to sit on it again, but then it moves once more to the other side, further angering him. The chair becomes a dead tree. The Rajah tries to uproot it, but he is not strong enough. The tree becomes a monster with a wicked grin on its face, scaring the Rajah. He swings his sword at it, but then it becomes a demon and chases him around the area. The frightened Rajah grabs the demon but it disappears in a cloud of smoke before he can do anything else. A beautiful woman suddenly appears, and approaches the Rajah. He is enthralled in love, and kneels down in want for her. As he takes her on his knee, several more women appear around him. They begin to dance around him, knocking him down every time they get close to him. After he finally gets up they chase after him. As they do so many more women join in, making a long line. Then they all appear again, wearing bits of armor and bearing axes, and begin to beat him. He gets pulled up to a podium where an executioner is about to behead him, but the Rajah grabs him and starts beating him up. However, he awakes to find this was all but a dream, and he was beating up his pillow. Confused and weary from all these things that transpired, he goes back to sleep.

References

External links

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