The Melomaniac
| Le Mélomane | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Georges Méliès |
| Starring | Georges Méliès |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 50 meters[2] |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
The Melomaniac (French: Le Mélomane) is a 1903 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès.
Plot
[edit]A music master leads his band to a field where five telegraph lines are strung on utility poles. Hoisting up a giant treble clef, he turns the set of lines into a giant musical staff. He then uses copies of his own head to spell out the tune for "God Save the King," and his band joins in.
Production and release
[edit]Méliès himself plays the lead role of the music master. The superimposition effects in The Mélomaniac, allowing multiple Méliès heads to appear on the staff, were created by a multiple exposure technique requiring the same strip of film to be run through the camera seven times.[3] The rest of the film's special effects were created with substitution splices.[4]
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 479–480 in its catalogues.[2] The film was registered for American copyright at the Library of Congress on 30 June 1903.[2]
The French film scholars Jacques Malthête and Laurent Mannoni believe The Mélomaniac to be Méliès's most famous trick film,[5] and a Méliès guide from the Centre national de la cinématographie judges that the film merits that position.[4] Film critic William B. Parrill rates it "innovative and creative".[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 31, ISBN 9782732437323
- ^ a b c Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 345
- ^ Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., p. 113, ISBN 0816183686
- ^ a b Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, pp. 136–7, ISBN 2903053073, OCLC 10506429
- ^ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 147
- ^ Parrill, William B. (2011), European Silent Films on Video: A Critical Guide, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, p. 474
External links
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