''The Brahmin and the Butterfly'' (french: La Chrysalide et le Papillon d'or, literally "The Chrysalis and the Golden Butterfly") is a 1901 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

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...

, 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 ...

Synopsis

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

, playing the flute in a rainforest, lures a large caterpillar toward him. The caterpillar is placed in a cocoon, from which it emerges as a woman-butterfly. Infatuated, the Brahmin tries to capture her with a blanket; when she reappears from inside the blanket, she has turned into a princess. When the Brahmin attempts to kiss her, the princess transforms him into the caterpillar.

Production and themes

''The Brahmin and the Butterfly'' was inspired by

Buatier de Kolta Buatier de Kolta (né Joseph Buatier; Caluire-et-Cuire, 18 November 1845 – New Orleans, 7 October 1903) was a French magician who performed throughout the latter part of the 1800s in Europe and America. Biography Joseph Buatier was born in C ...

's 1885 magic act ''Le Cocon, ou Le Ver à Soie''. In the act, de Kolta drew a silkworm on paper; the paper broke to reveal a cocoon, which opened to reveal de Kolta's wife dressed as a butterfly. Méliès's film maintains the links to the myth of

Pygmalion and Galatea Pygmalion and Galatea are two characters from Greco-Roman mythology. Pygmalion and Galatea may also refer to: * ''Pygmalion and Galatea'' (play), a play by W. S. Gilbert * '' Pygmalion and the Image series'', a series of paintings by Edward Burne- ...

, a theme beloved of stage magicians, but gives it a new comic twist. The ending of the film makes it unusual among Méliès's oeuvre: where usually his male characters lead the action and his female characters are reduced to supporting roles, here the butterfly-princess seizes control of the story and wins out over Méliès's own character. Méliès appears in the film as the Brahmin. The effects for the film were created using stage machinery 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 ...

Release and reception

''The Brahmin and the Butterfly'' 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 listed as numbers 332–333 in its catalogues. Like many of Méliès's films, it was sold both in black-and-white and in a version

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 ...

by the studio of

Elisabeth Thuillier Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sc ...

. The film survives only in black-and-white; in 1979, the film scholar Jacques Malthête recreated the hand-colored version using historically authentic technology, applying eight color tones to a black-and-white print. The film was screened in 2000 at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy. The film scholar

Paolo Cherchi Usai Paolo is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Paul. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Paolo Art *Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter *Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American s ...

contributed a one-sentence program note: "The most beautiful love story of early cinema!"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brahmin And The Butterfly 1901 films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films French black-and-white films Films about magic and magicians French fantasy films 1900s fantasy films