1902-1904 short films
Rating: No rating for shorts or collections of shorts
"Meanwhile, you're watching this shit." --My wife, disgruntled
Part One can be found right here if you're interested. You're probably not!
So many of these begin with Melies bowing to the audience, just like a magician coming on stage. He really did think of these things more as magic tricks than movies, I suppose. There's some silly slapstick with "The Colonel's Shower Bath," but Melies knew what he was good at and thankfully didn't try too much of that sort of thing. Most of this is just Melies doing these little movie magic tricks.
"The Dancing Midget" disappoints by not having any actual midgets and is heavy on egg tricks and ballerinas.
Melies gets a lot of play from magic boxes during this period. "The Treasure of Satan" combines surrealist magic and a dancing box for some kinky damnation.
"The Human Fly" anticipates Lionel Richie but with more Russian dancing and what can only be described as breakdancing 82 years before Breakin' came out. In fact, it's safe to say that Melies invented breakdancing.
"The Marvelous Wreath" is one of many of these that utilize this spry fellow who always bounds into the scenes and looks like he's about to break something. This time he's a devil gymnast. Lots of demon references in these, by the way.
There are two titles with "infernal" in them. "The Infernal Cakewalk" has dancing (you guessed it) demons and fire magic. One demon has the legs that Torgo should have had. The best part about this one is an elaborate set with all these moving parts. Melies almost always impresses with the art design with these things. "The Infernal Cauldron" probably makes more sense as a title than "The Infernal Cakewalk."
"The Enchanted Well" has some great animals--a donkey, snake puppets, and frog guys. Oh, and demons. And by "great animals," I really mean "completely ridiculous animals." The donkey costume is wonderfully laughable, but it doesn't hurt the magic any.
"The Inn Where No Man Rests" is about a cute little haunting, more whimsical surrealism. Melies, as he does in a lot of these, stars and gives one of the worst drunk acting performances you'll ever see. This one had about the same "story" as "The Bewitched Inn" from the Part One except this one was a little crazier.
There was more playful self-decapitation in this one, too. In "Melomaniac," he tosses heads onto a musical staff. Of course, that might have worked better with sound. I can't read music, Melies! How am I supposed to know the tune your heads make?
I don't have a lot to say about a piece called "Jupiter's Thunderballs," but I need an excuse to type that title out. This one was unremarkable although it did have some vocal sound effects and a Jupiter who reminded me of a Looney Tunes character I couldn't quite identify.
"Jack Jags and Dum Dum" had a lot of clownish tricks involving things disappearing or suddenly materializing. I'm sure people in the early-1900s fell for it! The chairs and balls and hats transforming into other things is a little more seamless in this second chunk of movies. Melies also fell in love with a trick that is used here and lots of other ones where clothes are thrown at a person who is then dressed in those clothes. It's remarkable how you could actually be fooled into thinking that's really happening here.
I love that moon that I wrote about last time (and it's in one or two of these as well), but I might have a new favorite prop--the wonderful living fan in "The Wonderful Living Fan." Check this bad boy out:
I want one for my bedroom!
Melies dives underwater for us with "Mermaid," featuring a smokin' hot mermaid. My favorite monster in these shorts is probably the seven-headed hydra in the Faust short though.
The pieces de resistance, however, are two very famous Melies shorts.
The first is the widely-seen "A Trip to the Moon" featuring geriatric astronomers amidst mushrooms and Selenites. This must have been the first science fiction movie, right? It also might be the first legitimate film spectacle. Those Selenites weren't all that intimidating, especially since they become a cloud of dust when struck with an umbrella. This is just so much fun and imaginative and has some great imagery. It must have been an enormous influence on a guy like Terry Gilliam. I like that it seems to poke fun at science a little bit, too.
"A Trip to the Moon" might be what Melies is most famous for, but for my money, "The Kingdom of the Fairies" is his masterpiece. Nearly 20 minutes long, this thing is filled with fantastical imagery, elaborate sets, and dazzling special effects. Dig those awesome water scenes! See lobstermen! There's more originality packed into these 20 minutes than most modern-day blockbusters. This version was colorized, and it's just stunningly beautiful. If you see one Melies' movie, I think I'd pick this one.
That's all I've got. I apologize if this doesn't make sense. I had taken some notes, but I couldn't make much sense out of them.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Buster watched some of these with me. While Jen was clearly not amused (see her quote above), Buster really enjoyed some of this and even Wow'd audibly a few times. She fell for the magic. And as bad as 2017 has been, there is at least that to be happy about.
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