''The Devil in a Convent'' (French: ''Le Diable au couvent''), released in the UK as ''"The Sign of the Cross", or the Devil in a Convent'', is an 1899 French silent

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

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 ...

Themes

According to some film critics, ''The Devil in a Convent'' parodies monastic life, suggesting a satirical view of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Méliès almost certainly agreed with the anti-ecclesiastic emotions prevalent during the Dreyfus affair in 1898 and 1899; Méliès supported

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the Fre ...

's case, while the Church opposed it. Méliès made another religious satire, '' The Temptation of Saint Anthony'', in the same year, as well as his strongly pro-Dreyfus film series '' The Dreyfus Affair''.

Production

The film may have been inspired in part by the

phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (), alternatively fantasmagorie and/or fantasmagoria, was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images – such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts – typicall ...

productions of the French magician

Étienne-Gaspard Robert Étienne-Gaspard Robert (15 June 1763 – 2 July 1837), often known by the stage name of "Robertson", was a prominent physicist, magic (illusion), stage magician and influential developer of phantasmagoria from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. He ...

, known by the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

"Robertson". Méliès himself plays the Devil in the film. ''The Devil in a Convent'' was likely the first Méliès film to take advantage of dissolves as a transition effect.

Release

''The Devil in a Convent'' was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 185–187 in its catalogues, which also specified the film's three scenes (''1. Les nonnes, le sermon. 2. Les démons, le sabbat. 3. Le clergé, l'exorcisme''). In 2010, the Cinémathèque Basque received a donation of a box of 35mm films, recovered by a private individual in 1995 from a garbage bin in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

. The box was found to contain 32 films, including

hand-colored Hand-colouring (or hand-coloring) refers to any method of manually adding colour to a Monochrome photography, monochrome photograph, generally either to heighten the realism of the image or for artistic purposes. Hand-colouring is also known as ...

prints of ''The Devil in a Convent'' and another 1899 Méliès film, '' The Mysterious Knight''. Previously, these two films had only been available in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

copies. The hand-colored print of ''The Devil in a Convent'' was judged to be in too advanced a state of decomposition to be restored completely; however, the third scene of the film was in good enough condition to be restored. Both films were entrusted to the

Filmoteca de Catalunya The Filmoteca de Catalunya is a film archive located in Catalunya, Spain, aiming at the preservation of film and the dissemination of audiovisual and film culture. The head office and public rooms (cinemas, exhibition rooms, library) are located ...

for restoration, under the supervision of two Méliès scholars, Roland Cosandey and Jacques Malthête.

References

External links

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The Devil in a Convent - Movie short
* 1899 films 1899 horror films French silent short films French black-and-white films Films directed by Georges Méliès Demons in film The Devil in film 1899 short films Silent French horror films 1890s French films Trick films Articles containing video clips {{1890s-horror-film-stub