In the film we’ve mainly concentrated on the personalities of the characters in the cards, and the thread through the film is this one little guy who arrives in Hell with a strange little suitcase under his arm, and it’s about his journey through various rooms in Hell.” It’s very tongue-in-cheek, because that’s what the Diableries were – they started as a rather stern depiction of the religious teachings of the time, but evolved into a parody of those teachings, and into quite a hard and vicious satire on the regime of the day: it’s amazing that they got away with it. “I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s basically a day in the life of Satan in Hell. We immediately realised that we both spoke the same language, and both shared a passion for these things, and it all happened very quickly after that: it was only a year ago that we first spoke.”Ĭould you give us a short plot summary of One Night In Hell? “No, the book did its work, in that it got people really fascinated with this world, and Paul Laikin from Unanico got in touch with me originally because he’d seen the book and found the visuals so inspiring. When we put together the Diableries book last year we managed to track down 181 of the known 182 cards in existence, and they present this wonderful, satirical vision of Napoleon III’s reign via these images of the underworld.”Īnd did you approach the animators with the idea of bringing the cards to life? “Well, Diableries have been part of my life for nearly 50 years, since I first found one on a Portobello Road market stall, and I’ve continued to seek them out wherever I go in the world.
The Diableries cards are clearly very close to your heart: would you care to explain the fascination the collection holds for you? Together with historians Paula Fleming and Denis Pellerin, May published a book titled Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell in 2013, and One Night in Hell represents the guitarist’s newest attempt to bring the devils, skeletons and demons depicted in the cards to life.Ĭlassic Rock spoke with May ahead of the film’s world premiere in London to hear more about this diabolical project… The short, set to premiere in the UK on Sky 3D and Sky Arts on Halloween night, is based upon May’s personal collection of Diableries, a set of stereoscopic cards published in France from the early 1860s which feature visions of the underworld. Queen guitarist speaks to Classic Rock about his devilish new animated film.īrian May has teamed up with animation/production company Unanico Group to create an animated film titled One Night In Hell.
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