Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb (1899)

Original title

Cléopâtre

Directed by

Georges Méliès

Genre

fantasy film, horror film, silent film

Country

France

Runtime

2 min

Rating

1.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man breaks apart Cleopatra's mummy and then summons a woman from a smoking brazier. It is an early silent trick film about resurrecting the ancient queen.

early-cinemawhimsicalsurrealplayfuluncannyfantasticalhistorically-tinged

What happens

Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb (French: Cléopâtre, literally Cleopatra) is an 1899 silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. One of the earliest horror films ever made, it is about resurrecting the mummy of Cleopatra. In it, a man chops the mummy of Cleopatra into pieces, and then "produces a woman from a smoking brazier." While today director Méliès is more known for his iconic film A Trip to the Moon, it was this film which caught the attention of producer Charles Urban, who released the film in the United States (under the title Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb; its British release was simply titled Cleopatra's Tomb) and subsequently distributed many of Méliès other films. It is numbered 175–176 in the Méliès catalogue. The film was considered a lost film; however a print was reported to have been discovered in France on 22 September 2005, despite the IMdB page of the short mentioning the discovered film was in fact a different Méliès film involving tomb robbery, The Oracle of Delphi (1903). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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