A Fallen Spirit (1910) User Reviews

de Chomon

[sirjohnnygawain · 6/10 · 2 January 2014]

As best I can tell, this is the same film as "Flema Inglesa", which already has an IMDb entry (and also seems to go by the titles "A Fallen Spirit", "The Sword of Spirit", and "British Phlegm"). It's a trick film made by Segundo de Chomon. It's far from being his best work - the opening is confusing and dull, but the last two minutes are pretty good.

I only wanted to point out this is a duplicate entry in the IMDb database, but now I have to write ten lines, so I guess I'll recommend these films by de Chomon: Les Tulipes (1907), The Haunted House (1908) and Metamorphoses (1912). All are great.

A rather terrible little film.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 14 February 2014]

Part of the problem with "A Fallen Spirit" is that the print is so dark that it really made the film harder to understand. Nevertheless, it STILL would have been a rather incomprehensible film--one that never once appealed to me.

The film was directed by Segundo de Chomón--a man known for using film tricks in most of his films. The problem here is that the film is all tricks and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of story. And, since IMDb doesn't have a summary, I am left wondering what the heck I just saw! In addition, wild overacting (even by 1910's standards) sink this one to the abyss of Segundo de Chomón's work.

By the way, the copy I saw from archive.org bore the Spanish title "Nicholas el Tonto", or, "Nicholas the Idiot"!

This guy has problems

[Tornado_Sam · 11 February 2018]

Were people still entertained by these trick films by 1910? I mean, by 1906 or so Georges Méliès was losing his market in trick films--people were no longer interested in watching simple camera tricks. People wanted plots and stories, and Chomón and Méliès's films no longer cut it.

"A Fallen Spirit", or "Flema Inglesa" or "Nicholas the Idiot" is a rather strange little film. According to 2020 Movie Reviews, the film is about a man at an inn entertaining guests with his magic sword. Then, Nicholas (the idiot of the title) steals the sword to perform his own magic. From there things go crazy. Weird stop-motion effects steal the show and the guy goes berserk! When the owner of the sword discovers it's missing, Nicholas is in for some trouble.

As another reviewer commented, the beginning of this film is a tad mundane, so the best part is definitely at the end where the guy loses it. But boy, how I laughed at that part! The movie is so weird it is funny--something kids would enjoy today. I laughed out loud. I certainly don't know why "plantonrules" dismissed it--it's not a movie to take seriously, just a quick 7-minute watch that will make you chuckle.