Touches You

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Le spectre rouge" or "The Red Spectre" is a French silent film from 1907, so this one has its 110th anniversary and it is a collaboration between Segundo de Chomón and Ferdinand Zecca, two of the greats from the early days of film, even if their names don't mean anything to most people today. It's their loss as these two were highly prolific and successful back in the day. And there work here looks spectacular in terms of effects, costumes and even colors. The red referenced in the title was nothing short of amazing and this movie was certainly far ahead of its time. But that is also a problem because the medium was not yet ready for the minds of SdC and Zecca and the evidence are these 9 minutes here. Without the use of sound or at least intertitles, it is virtually impossible to understand even very basically what was going on. Such a shame as this little film looked so good. But story trumps everything and that's why eventually I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

Before I go into this film, I would like to point out that it and another film by the same person entitled "Satan at Play" appear to be one and the same, though I haven't seen the latter. Still, IMDb gives both titles a page, and both titles have reviews written on them. Also, two colored prints of this film are floating around YouTube: one with a purplish grotto, and another with a milder, brownish tint which I've seen.Now to the film. It's about a mysterious spectre who puts on a diabolical magic show. Many of these tricks are something you'd see Melies doing years before, although one scene uses a closeup, which you don't see in Melies's work. There is also a subplot of one spirit constantly trying to spoil his fun, and in the end destroying him.For 1907 this was actually a full-length feature, at 10 whole minutes long. The beginning is entirely tinted red, but later other colors come into play. The demon's makeup is really quite beautiful and ghastly, and the sets are pretty good. The main problem is that the pacing is off. In Melies's work you're treated to one trick after another, but here there's lots of set-up and it does drag. That said, I would agree with those who say that while watching it it's as though you have entered another world, because it's visually astounding and has some excellent tricks. Even despite lack of story this is a very nice watch.

The Red Spectre (1907)** 1/2 (out of 4) Mildly entertaining French film from director Ferdinand Zecca was clearly influenced by the work of Georges Melies. In this film, in what appears to be Hell or something like it, a skeleton brings to life a couple women and then begins to do various tricks with them. That's pretty much everything you need to know in regards to the story as everything else is just one trick after another. There are a few good things about this film but at the same time it's just so easy to see that it's no where near the league of Melies and you have to feel that the French master was doing this type of film a decade earlier and doing it much better. I think the biggest problem is that there's really no strong pacing and after a while the 9-minute running time just feels like it's dragging along. There are several of the tricks, which simply aren't that entertaining and for one good example just check out the one where the skeleton wraps a woman up in some sort of tarp. How the trick was done is easy to spot. There are some good things however and this includes the scenery, which is quite nice to look at. The biggest highlight has to be the very good tinting and especially the reds.

The first decade of the twentieth century saw the production of dozens of brief "trick films" which pushed the boundaries of the new medium, and France was the capital of this activity. Georges Méliès is the best known creator of these films, but The Red Spectre, which was produced at the Pathé Studio as a collaboration between Méliès' fellow pioneers Ferdinand Zecca and Segundo De Chomon, is perhaps the most bizarre and fascinating of them all. Or at least, allowing for the fact that so many of these films are lost, it certainly ranks with the best of the survivors. It is better seen than described, genuinely dreamlike in its images and transitions, and quite strange, but quite satisfying as well. The action lasts only about 8 or 9 minutes, but when it's over you feel as if you've been permitted to visit another world. When The Red Spectre was first exhibited the black & white footage was hand-colored to produce a dazzling effect, and happily, this material survives: a color print was discovered in a junk-yard in Mexico, and purchased for $25.00!Our setting is a mysterious underground grotto, and our "host" is a demonic magician who seems to be toying with the souls or spirits of several captive women. He causes them to levitate, then burst into flames; he captures their ashes in bottles, brings them back to life in miniaturized form, etc. The magician is opposed throughout by a Good Fairy who resembles Peter Pan (portrayed by a woman, as Peter traditionally is on stage). The precise meaning of the action is difficult to determine at times, but the central conflict amounts to a struggle between the forces of Good and Evil.One effect is especially notable: when the wicked magician produces three glass bottles, each holding a tiny woman prisoner, and brings them downstage to allow for a close-up, the scene instantly reminds latter day viewers of a similar sequence in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Did James Whale see this film, or is the similarity a coincidence? Notable, too, is the depiction of a device very much like television-- strongly suggested by the evil conjurer's magic screens, each of which depicts a series of moving images. Here's a real cinematic milestone: a film that predicts the coming of T.V., and, on top of that, attributes its invention to a demon!