Le papillon fantastique (1909)
aka The Spider and the Butterfly
Even though there are nearly two-hundred Georges Melies films available on DVD, the sad fact remains that there are many more lost. This film here is only available in a fragment piece that runs just under two minutes. The story is pretty simple as a magician (played by Melies) creates a butterfly (a female actress with wings) and then he creates a spider (again, a female actress) who pulls the butterfly into its web. I'm not sure what all originally happened in this film but what's remaining is pretty interesting and is certainly worth watching for fans of Melies as well as the horror genre. One major plus is that the film was hand-tinted and this adds a lot of charm to the film including a great bit where Melies fires a gun and we see an orange color being used for the shot. I really enjoyed the colors that he used once the attack started and it's quite creepy in its own way. While this thing is far from a masterpiece it's still worth viewing and this fragment will have to do until something more turns up.