''Hôtel électrique'' (also released in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

as ; ) is a 1908 silent French comedy-fantasy

trick film In the early history of cinema, trick films were short silent films designed to feature innovative special effects. History The trick film genre was developed by Georges Méliès in some of his first cinematic experiments, and his works remain ...

directed by

Segundo de Chomón Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé, Pat ...

and produced by

Pathé Frères Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

. The short appears to be inspired by the 1907 American short film '' The Haunted Hotel''.

Plot

Laure and Bertrand arrive at the Electric Hotel, where a control board allows inanimate objects to come to life. For most of the film, the effects are used to perform tasks such as polishing shoes, styling hair and putting away luggage, to the two guests' great pleasure. At the end, a drunken concierge erratically throws switches that cause the system to go haywire, sending all of the hotel's furniture into a jumbled, chaotic mess.

Background

The film displays one of the earliest uses of

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

in history, though it is not de Chomón's first try at this technique: his 1906 film, ''Le théâtre de Bob'', uses animated puppets. However, ''Hôtel électrique'' is also an early use of

pixilation Pixilation is a stop motion technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. This technique ...

Julienne Mathieu having her hair brushed

Cast

as Bertrand *

Julienne Mathieu Julienne Alexandrine Mathieu ( - ) was one of the earliest French silent film actresses who appeared mostly in French silents between 1905 and 1909. She appeared in the silent film '' Hôtel électrique'' released in 1908, one of the first film ...

as Laure *

References

3. Smith, Dominic (2019). "The Electric Hotel". Published by Sarah Crichton Books; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. .

External links

* * 1908 films 1908 animated films 1900s fantasy comedy films 1900s science fiction films 1900s stop-motion animated films 1900s French films French fantasy comedy films Films directed by Segundo de Chomón Films using stop-motion animation French silent short films Spanish fantasy comedy films Spanish comedy short films Spanish silent films 1900s rediscovered films Spanish black-and-white films French black-and-white films Spanish science fiction films Rediscovered French films Silent French comedy short films Silent science fiction films Films set in hotels Trick films Articles containing video clips {{short-silent-film-stub