The Kingdom of the Fairies

The Kingdom of the Fairies, initially released in the United States as Fairyland, or the Kingdom of the Fairies and in Great Britain as The Wonders of the Deep, or Kingdom of the Fairies, is a 1903 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Production The film historian Georges Sadoul suggested that the film was freely adapted from La Biche au Bois, a popular féerie by the brothers Goignard, which had been first produced in March 1845 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin and which was frequently revived throughout the nineteenth century. A publication on Méliès's films by the Centre national du cinéma cites Charles Perrault's story "Sleeping Beauty" as the most direct inspiration for the film, with the seven fairies in that tale reduced to four. The film's cast includes Georges Méliès as Prince Bel-Azor, Marguerite Thévenard as Princess Azurine, and Bleuette Bernon as the fairy Aurora. Sadoul, examining a production still from the film, identified the actor Durafour as a supporting player. While most of the film was shot indoors, the nuptial cortege scene near the end was filmed outdoors in Méliès's garden, with a real horse. Special effects in the film were created with stage machinery, rolling panoramas, miniature models, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, superimpositions, and dissolves.