Le Sovre d'or
The Arabian Nights
Le Palais des mille et une nuits is a 1905 French silent fantasy film directed by Georges Méliès. The film, inspired by The Thousand and One Nights, follows the adventures of a prince whose courage and devotion are tested in a magical quest to win the hand of his beloved.
In a mythical Arabian kingdom, the noble but penniless Prince Sourire (French for "smile") loves the beautiful Princess Indigo and asks her father, a powerful Rajah, for her hand in marriage. The Rajah angrily rejects the prince; he has already promised Indigo's hand to an old friend of his, the wealthy loan shark Sakaram. Indigo protests vehemently as Sourire is thrown out by guards.
Returning to his private chamber, Sourire cries in pain and accidentally knocks over an incense burner. Smoke rises from the burner, from which emerges the sorcerer Khalafar. After hearing the prince's story, the sorcerer takes him under his protection and gives him a magical sword, promising that if the prince is brave and determined, the sorcerer will lead him to an abundant treasure that will allow him to win his love. Sourire willingly accepts and embarks on the adventure, followed shortly after by his friends, who want to prevent him from doing anything rash.
Arriving at a temple, the prince falls to his knees in supplication before an altar to a goddess, Siva (presumably inspired by the Hindu deity Siva). The statue of the goddess on the altar miraculously comes to life and sends Sourire off in an ornate boat steered by a blue dwarf. The boat sails down a sacred river and takes Sourire to an impenetrable forest, which magically opens to reveal secret caverns guarded by a Golden Fairy.
Sourire and his friends descend into a crystal cave, where their courage is tested by attacks from fire genii, fire goblins, ghost skeletons, a fire-breathing dragon, and a herd of monstrous toads. Sourire stands firm and sends the monsters flying. Khalafar appears and congratulates the prince on passing the probationary period; now he will be rewarded for his efforts. Sourire is led to the Palace of the Arabian Nights and is presented with an enormous treasure.
Back in the Rajah's kingdom, the day of Indigo's wedding to Sakaram has arrived. Just as the two are about to be married in the palace courtyard, trumpets sound and Prince Sourire appears, decked out in his newly found finery and followed by a procession revealing his riches. The stunned Rajah allows Indigo to finally marry Sourire. The delighted crowd chases Sakaram out of the courtyard and celebrates the wedding of the prince and princess.
Although clearly inspired by The Arabian Nights, the film's plot is not drawn from any story in that collection; rather, Méliès combined the work's visual iconography and elements from several stories, including the freed genie from the folk tale of Aladdin, into an original adventure narrative that would allow ample scope for spectacle and special effects.
The result is a simple story filled with exotic settings and spectacular moments, much reminiscent of the plots of féeries, spectacular French stage productions popular in the 19th century. Méliès appears in the film as the sorcerer Khalafar. One of Méliès's costume sketches lists the other actors he planned to cast: "Ms. Calvière, Bodson, Billuart et Pelletier. M. Docky, d'Hubert, Dufresne, etc."
Le Palais des mille et une nuits was Méliès's second film, after Le Barbier de Séville (1904), which was 400 metres longer. The film, one of Méliès's most opulent films, is notable for a stronger emphasis on spectacle and a somewhat more relaxed pace than Méliès's previous films; this change in style may have been influenced by Edwin S. Porter's 1903 film version of Uncle Tom's Cabin or by the lavish historical dramas then in vogue among Italian filmmakers.
For the costumes for his film, Méliès took advantage of the availability of a considerable stock of costumes that he had purchased that same year from a bankrupt costume house, the Maison Lepère. The film's numerous props include almost all of those previously seen, or later seen, in other Méliès films: thus, the Moorish gate of the Temple d'Or was borrowed from L'Homme mouche (1902), the dragon puppet returns in La Fée Carabosse ou le Poignard fatal (1906), the ruins reappear in Pauvre John ou les Aventures d'un buveur de whiskey (1907), and so on.
The Palace of the Arabian Nights itself, painted in the trompe l'oeil style on a plain background, looks exactly like the salle de glaces (hall of mirrors) presented at the Paris Exposition of 1900. (A very similar room was established more permanently in Paris six years later, as part of the Musée Grevin.) de París.
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