Cinema
The Red Spectre
Le Spectre rouge
Segundo de Chomón · 1907
Synopsis
In a sinister cave, a demon with a skeleton's face, draped in a cape, gives a performance of black magic. He conjures up women and turns them into swirling flames, sets up two altars covered with a black cloth and lays his victims on them before setting them on fire, pours water into bottles in which miniature women appear, opens a panelled board with pivoting panels. Each time, a spirit of light in the form of a woman appears to thwart his tricks. The film is a series of acts rather than a story.
Context
Shot for Pathé Frères in 1907 and stencil-coloured, the film runs about nine minutes. It is often credited to Chomón alone, sometimes to Chomón and Ferdinand Zecca, then the firm's principal director, with whom he worked closely. It was long confused with Satan s'amuse, another film by the same author, but press reports of 1907 make it possible to tell them apart. It has circulated in private collections and through the cinémathèque of the Museum of Modern Art, as an example of stencil colouring.
Who it is for
A silent short film of a few minutes, with no continuous story: a series of special effects to be watched like a magic act.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's masterpiece and as one of the first Spanish Gothic films.