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Decades before the term "special effects" was coined, audiences of the newborn cinema were witnessing spectacular screen illusions, courtesy of the medium's first master magician: Georges Melies. Melies' astounding employment of double exposure, makeup, editing and theatrical trickery still command the power to surprise and bewilder and can now be seen for the first time with crystal clarity in fifteen beautifully restored films, accompanied by newly composed scores. Includes the documentary "Georges Melies: Cinema Magician," plus the Melies shorts "An Impossible Voyage" (struck from an original hand-colored negative), "The Black Imp," "The Cook in Trouble," "The Living Playing Cards," and 11 more!
Review
This second of two DVD compilations culled from the 1994 five-videocassette collection The Movies Begin released by Kino on Video is part of an overview history lesson for film buffs. This DVD program at hand is lifted wholesale from cassette four of that Kino collection and was also previously available on a 1995 laserdisc.
The opening documentary, Georges Méliès: Cinema Magician, serves as an introduction to the cinematic work of Méliès. Its French-accented narration is a drawback, as is the generally moderate quality of the motion picture materials and soundtrack. Inserted into the documentary is a new transfer of a hand-tinted print of The Impossible Voyage (1904), which is a companion to the hand-tinted version of A Trip to the Moon (1902) available on Volume 1 of this DVD series.
The Untamable Whiskers (1904) utilizes a series of dissolves between shots of character makeup on Méliès. He draws the intended character on a blackboard then poses as the makeup appears on his face. The Cook in Trouble (1904) is another example of a wizard and Méliès' stop-action demons causing havoc in a cook's kitchen. Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer (1904) features Méliès in Chinese garb and makeup performing stop-action magic. The Wonderful Living Fan (1904) is a costume piece with a man of royalty being entertained by a large fan that transforms into a fan of beautiful women. The Mermaid (1904) does more of Méliès' trademark stop-action conjuring before the film turns to its real subject, a mermaid that turns into woman followed by Méliès transforming into Poseidon for the final tableaux. In The Living Playing Cards (1905) Méliès turns a playing to a live queen and back again, before making a king come alive and a surprise ending. The Black Imp (1905) appears to use the same set as another Méliès film . . . another demon causes trouble for a hotel patron. The Enchanted Sedan Chair (1905) features an unusual combination of dissolve and cutting to create a transformation effect and some very smooth cutting effects. The Scheming Gamblers Paradise (1905) features a gambling parlor that transforms in a matter of seconds when the police are around. The police appropriate the hall for their own use. The Hilarious Posters (1905) features a transformation of paper posters into a series of living characters, but is also the kind of nonsense that 1905 audiences were beginning to get bored with. The Mysterious Retort (1906) a wizard, a snake, an imp, a spider, an apparition and a beautiful woman. What more could you want from a Méliès film? The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and the Moon (1907) harkens back to Méliès' earlier fantastical excursions, and may feature the earliest use of intertitles in a Méliès film. Great expressions on the sun's face. In Good Glue Sticks (1907) two policemen break up the activities of a street merchant selling glue. When the policemen fall asleep on a park bench, the merchant gets his revenge by gluing the two policemen together. In Long Distance Wireless Photography (1908) Méliès is a scientist who demonstrates his new invention.
Ignoring the older prints used in the Méliès documentary, the materials utilized for the video transfers of the short films range from very good to excellent. The print of The Cook in Trouble suffers from occasional frame jitters. Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer looks as though it was restored from a Library of Congress paper print, which is not a shortcoming. Many of the paper prints held by the Library of Congress have been recopied to 35mm restoration negatives and look almost indistinguishable from original filmstock prints. The Black Imp appears here in a much-improved print from the one utilized for the documentary.
Overall, the program's appeal is brought down by the documentary, but the generous number of quality Méliès' films include here makes the disc a worthwhile addition to the silent film enthusiasts' collection.
