The Temptation of St. Anthony (1898) User Reviews

Religious Films

[boblipton · 7/10 · 13 March 2008]

Having invented the trick film and the stag film (with the same year's APRES LE BAL), Melies also pioneered the religious film, with this account of the temptation of St. Anthony, using the same sort of camera tricks he was using for his magic works.

But I wonder: what was the placement order of his catalogue? Did this come immediately after APRES LE BAL?

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

The very non-quiet and busy life of a hermit.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 10 February 2019]

This is apparently one of the first religious films ever made if not the first. It tells the story of St. Anthony (who, no one is actually sure ever existed) and his ordeals as a hermit. Now you'd THINK that hermit meant he was always alone...but she-demons come to him in this version of his life story and try to tempt him away from God. One even aparates on the giant crucifix in his cave...but ultimately an angel appears and drives away all these creatures and the holy man is left in peace.

This is very entertaining and despite a run time of only about 70 seconds, it's pretty much complete. Weird...though not nearly as weird as paintings of St. Anthony's tempation by Bosch and his contemporaries!

Surreal and erotic

[MissSimonetta · 7/10 · 20 August 2013]

As the bearded hermit St. Anthony prays in a lonely cavern, he is tormented by visions of sexy women who constantly appear via stop trick. The scantily clad nymphs giggle and prance about as they attempt to ensnare him in an embrace or kiss him on the lips, which titillates and terrorizes the pious saint all at once. At the end, he is saved by the heavenly vision of an angel stretched out upon a crucifix... which is also another sexy woman. It is a strange ending indeed and makes me wonder if it means something.

A very weird (and perhaps even Freudian??) short from cinema pioneer George Melies.

Schadenfreude

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 13 October 2013]

This was definitely way funnier than I expected and I could very well imagine if important church representatives saw this, they probably weren't too amused although the priest does a pretty good job in resisting the temptations of the flesh for the entire movie. I know I'd have given in probably right at the beginning and things may have gotten quite nasty. The first black-haired woman who appears is truly stunning. Our hero, however, resists and prays hard instead asking god why does he have to tempt him so much while waving his hands excessively. I smiled a lot while watching this short film. It's one of the best Méliès films and comedies from the 19th century in my opinion, possibly because it's so very politically incorrect. The moment the Jesus statue turns into a woman near the end is a great highlight and I didn't really see it coming. Hilarious and very much recommended. You can't spend a good minute much better than by watching this. Unless you give in to the temptation of course.

Temptation of Saint Anthony

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

Temptation of Saint Anthony, The (1898)

*** (out of 4)

aka Tentation de Saint Antoine

A strange religious film from director Melies takes place in what appears to be a cave where St. Anthony is looking at Jesus, attached to the cross, when the devil tries to temp him with various women. It's hard to tell if this was meant to be a serious religious film or just a way for Meiles to bring laughs with his special effects. I'm going to guess that this was meant to be more serious than anything else as it contains lesser special effects than we've seen from the director in previous films. There's one sequence where Anthony goes to pray to Jesus but he turns into a woman as well. The effects aren't anything special but this remains a pretty unique film.

Not Melies Best

[Rainey-Dawn · 6/10 · 12 July 2019]

It is a little interesting - Just over a minute long so it doesn't take long to watch the film but it's only worth watching if you want to see Jesus turn into a vixen and quickly shooed away by St. Antony.

6/10

Among Melies's duller films

[alomerdenis · 4/10 · 27 November 2020]

Nothing particularly interesting happens that you cannot see in some of his better work, and the themes are similar, with a slight twist. Nothing objectively terrible though, so a 4/10

He's a Better Man Than I Am--Oh, Of Course, He Is a Saint

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 10 November 2017]

Once again a lot of quick changes. As St. Anthony worships a statue of Christ on a cross, he is tested. From somewhere an attractive young woman tries to tempt him. He resists. Then another one comes and they tug and pull at him. But he is resistant to their wiles even though a third one comes along. At one point Christ turns into a woman on the cross. That must have turned a few heads. Anyway, it is a packed single minute of film.

Méliès's earliest religious film

[Tornado_Sam · 4 September 2018]

From the very beginning to the end of his career, director Georges Méliès's was fascinated with the concept of good vs. evil. Often, to demonstrate this theme, he would incorporate the devil into these productions, finding him not only a mischievously comical character to bring humor into his work, but an excellent way to bring out the special effects onscreen. Among the various work he turned out with this theme, there were sometimes (and very rarely) a few religious works in the mix. "The Temptation of Saint Anthony", while technically not part of this genre, clearly is one of those religious films. (If I'm not mistaken, it could also have been the very first). Indeed, there is no devil to be seen in this brief minute-long production, since Méliès was still getting to develop the character's mischievousness which would show up in later works. That's not to say Satan hadn't shown up in any of Méliès's productions yet (he had appeared in at least three by this point) but his character was not yet the funny, exuberant caricature which the director played him as in later works. (Jules-Eugène Legris's performance in "The House of the Devil" as Mephistopheles comes across as sinister and intimidating). Méliès would later interpret him for the known first time in "The Devil in a Convent"; until that time, he would be missing that special charm only the cinemagician himself could give.

But back to this film. As I said before, the devil was a common character in Méliès's output, yet only two of the films featuring him were actually religious (the aforementioned "Devil in a Convent" being one of them), and in general he didn't really make very many. Two other religious films by Méliès that I can think of off the top of my head are "The Wandering Jew" of 1904 and "Christ Walking on the Water", made a year after this one and now believed lost. "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" takes place in what appears to be a cave (it's also one of Méliès's most artful set designs) where a statue of Jesus Christ on the Cross (really just a cardboard cut-out, no doubt) is positioned and the bearded old saint (probably played by Méliès) is praying to him. Out of nowhere appear beautiful seductive woman who tries to tempt him, but whom he resists as they appear and disappear. SPOILERS HERE: One of them (Jehanne d'Alcy) even takes the place of Jesus on the Cross (!) before a superimposed angel appears and saves the poor man.

Unlike what the previous reviewer stated, I actually think Méliès was trying to be funny when he filmed this. The entire short is carried out pretty much like one of his haunted inn movies and features a fair amount of sight gags (not to mention Jesus transforming into the woman) as well as generally feeling like a comedy. It would be interesting to know if this caused some sort of scandal as being sacreligious or sexual at the time, maybe both. I can well imagine it titillated a few men back in 1898.