Humanity Through the Ages

Summary

The film's first ten episodes feature Cain and Abel, the Druids, Nero and Locusta, the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, the pillories of the Middle Ages, the Gibbet of Montfaucon, torture processes in the Middle Ages, Louis XIII, contemporary Parisian apaches, and the Hague Convention of 1907. The Hague scene ends with the convention collapsing into chaos, with the delegates, who had convened to limit the power of armies, directly attacking each other. The eleventh and final scene, titled "Triumph," shows an Angel of Destruction hovering over a battlefield covered with dead and wounded soldiers.

Production

Humanity Through the Ages was made in response to successful historical films such as The Last Days of Pompeii, and directed in a highly serious style contrasting sharply with most of Méliès's work. Méliès made two appearances in the film, as a druid and as a judge in the Spanish Inquisition. The Méliès scholars Paul Hammond and John Frazer have noted that the film's highly pessimistic tone is unusual among Méliès's work; both scholars have suggested that the pessimism derives from the intense commercial pressure Méliès felt from competitors during the making of the film.

Release and reception

The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company as its first film of 1908 and numbered 1050–1065 in its catalogs. It was registered for American copyright at the Library of Congress on 7 February 1908.

According to the film historian Jay Leyda, the film created a sensation when it was released in Russia. Méliès reported late in life that Humanity Through the Ages was the film he felt proudest of. It is now presumed lost.