''La Toile d'araignée merveilleuse'', released in the United States as ''Incident from Don Quixote'' and in Britain as ''Magic Armour'',
[ and also known as ''The Marvelous Cobweb''][ and as ''Aventures de Don Quichotte'',][ was a 1908 French short silent film directed by ]Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...
, inspired by Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
's ''Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
''.
The film depicts a dream
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...
ing Don Quixote who fights monsters
A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...
in his sleep. He approaches a female winged humanoid
A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of ...
, but the woman's wings turn into tentacles
In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...
which attack the knight. The film features a typical depiction of a tentacle monster.
Plot
In one of his dreams, Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
is fighting monsters
A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...
. Having vanquished them, he goes to put on his armor, only to be met with a succession of strange events: first the armor appears occupied by a creature with stretching limbs, then a lovely young woman appears and sprouts butterfly wings. As Quixote approaches her, the wings become giant tentacles
In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...
and attack him. Just as Quixote is fighting back and reaching for his lance, he wakes up to find himself pummeling his servant Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza (; ) is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spain, Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, ...
.[
]
Release
The film 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 numbered 1367–1371 in its catalogues.[ It was registered for American copyright at the ]Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
on 10 October 1908, and was first announced in the French publication '' Ciné-Journal'' on 20 October 1908. The film is currently presumed lost.[
]
References
External links
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{{Don Quixote
1908 lost films
1908 short films
1900s French films
1900s monster movies
Films directed by Georges Méliès
Films based on Don Quixote
French silent short films
Lost French films
French black-and-white films
Films about dreams