Palace of Arabian Nights Marked the Beginning of the End

Tristan Ettleman
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read
THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (1905) — Georges Méliès

Note: This is the thirty-first in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at Mubi, showcasing five films per year. All this being explained, what follows is an examination of my favorite 1905 film, THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, directed by Georges Méliès.

This may have been my narrative for some time already, when writing about the films of Georges Méliès post-A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902), but the decline of the popularity and quality of his films could truly be marked beginning in 1905. Oh, certainly, he had a number of years to go before he retired from the screen, and fantasy/trick films would still be made en masse for a number of years. But if the five year lead up from 1900 to 1905 could be seen as the dominant period of the genre, 1905 to 1910 would be the symmetrical downturn on the rollercoaster of success. Realistic films, and for the first time, really, American films were pushing the envelope of cinematic success in a lot of ways.

THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL (1904) — Georges Méliès

Méliès’ stagebound and antiquated approach never evolved enough to maintain relevance in the ever-shifting and rapidly changing world of the early film industry. He made some concessions to the popular trends of the time in 1904, especially with THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL, but the experiments ended up being temporary. Méliès would leap headfirst back into his wheelhouse with his “epic” for the year of 1905, THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. And although it marked his end, and stands as one of the lesser of Méliès’ major works, it still managed to come out ahead as my favorite film of 1905 due to the undeniable charm of the oft-discussed aesthetic of Georges Méliès.

THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, like a lot of media that “adapts” One Thousand and One Nights, uses the legendary tome as inspiration rather than source material. Méliès had been known to indulge in Western fascination with Eastern mysticism and culture before, and doubled down on the impulse with THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. In fact, a lot of the typical Hollywood stereotypes that sprang from this Eastern fascination could be traced to some of the early films, like ARABIAN NIGHTS, that dealt with the subject.

These inaccurate odes or warnings of the magic of the East were most likely reflections of the general perception of “the Orient,” of course, rather than explicit creations of these early filmmakers. This is not an excuse for what would become (and, frankly, started as) dangerous exhibitions of stereotypes, but rather, an illustration of the insight these early films can give us when it comes to the Western view of the East.

Surprise: it’s not much different than you might expect from a 1905 French film. A lot of the medieval Arabic images you associate with media are found in THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, but Méliès’ strength, as always, lies in how he crafts these images, not necessarily the context or importance assigned to them. This is never more true than with THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, which eschews any kind of discernible commentary (at least, discernible on my part) that could have been found in most any of his other “epic” films. This is an exploration of exotic locales, and what seems to be nothing more, although there is something to be said for Méliès’ pacing of the film.

THE KINGDOM OF FAIRIES (1903) — Georges Méliès

ARABIAN NIGHTS was only Méliès’ second film to be longer than 400 meters, and ran, at full length, 28 minutes. Fittingly, Méliès treated the longer run time with a slower pace than the usual “manic” setting his films ran on, which ultimately renders the first ten minutes or so a little underwhelming. Essentially, a poor young prince asks for a beautiful princess’s hand in marriage, but is turned away by her father; she is set to marry an old, but wealthy, man. What follows is typical fairy tale fare: a “fairy godfather,” in the form of the sorcerer Khalafar, appears and gives the prince a magical sword. He then tells the prince he will lead the prince to treasure, but of course, there are dangers along the way.

At this point, ARABIAN NIGHTS’ spectacle kicks into full gear. It was certainly present in the film’s expository scenes, but once the prince embarks on his adventure and encounters dwarfs, genii, skeletons, dragons, and toads (the latter two being reused from THE ENCHANTED WELL [1903]), the surroundings become more opulently designed to match the intensity of the action. The design of the magical denizens are typically bizarre, but Méliès’ Orientalist touch is rendered beautifully. A “disappearing” forest is a brilliant mechanical feat (that he had actually already pulled off in THE KINGDOM OF FAIRIES [1903]), and the treasure room, the prince’s goal, is actually decidedly European. The film is ultimately an eclectic but spectacular collection of design inspirations, and that is certainly its strength.

Full film

Otherwise, the actions of the prince don’t seem to have any real weight (as in, there isn’t much real danger), and the characterizations are so one-sided without any kind of satire or commentary doing any of the heavy lifting, narrative-wise. THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS is a pretty film, and especially in the creature scenes, a fairly comic and amusing one, but it’s also a shallow film. Quite honestly, 1905 was a fairly weak year for film, as the industry and art form started to figure out exactly what it could be. Even still, THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS stands as an entertaining film and a cultural barometer of the film world and beyond.

Make sure to catch up on and keep up with all of my essays on my favorite films here.

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