Georges Melies Collection ( La magie Méliès / Un homme de tête / L'homme orchestre / Nouvelles luttes extravagantes / Barbe-bleue / L'homme à la tête en caoutchouc / Le voyage dans la lune / Le cake-walk infernal / Le mélomane / Le chaudron infernal / Les cartes vivantes / Le r ) ( The Magic of Méliès / Four Heads Are Better Than One / The One Man Band / The Fat and the Lean Wrestling Match / Bluebeard / The India Rubber Head / A Trip to Mars / The Cake-Walk Infernal / The Music Lover / The Infernal Caldron / The Living Playing )

Georges Melies Collection (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: La magie Méliès / Un homme de tête / L'homme orchestre / Nouvelles luttes extravagantes / Barbe-bleue / L'homme à la tête en caoutchouc / Le voyage dans la lune / Le cake-walk infernal / Le mélomane / Le chaudron infernal / Les cartes vivantes / Le r
Alternate Title: The Magic of Méliès / Four Heads Are Better Than One / The One Man Band / The Fat and the Lean Wrestling Match / Bluebeard / The India Rubber Head / A Trip to Mars / The Cake-Walk Infernal / The Music Lover / The Infernal Caldron / The Living Playing
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/NTSC/Region 0 )

Running Time:
185 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Documentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1898 - 1997 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
Jacques Meny
Georges Méliès

Written By:
Jacques Meny
Georges Méliès
Charles Perrault

Actors:
Daniel Ceccaldi ..... Méliès
Marina Moncade ..... La Narratrice (voice)
Charles-Antoine Decroix ..... Le Bonimenteur (voice)
Abdul Alafrez ..... Le Magicien
Claire Mosser ..... Partenaire du Magicien
Didier Cremer ..... Méliès jeune
Alain Kanto ..... Le Lanterniste
Philippe Duval ..... L'aboyeur
François Riou ..... La main qui dessine
Clara Mény ..... Madeleine enfant
Madeleine Malthête-Méliès ..... Herself
Christian Fechner ..... Himself
Laurent Mannoni ..... Himself
Jacques Malthête ..... Himself
Anne-Marie Malthête-Quévrain ..... Herself
Georges Méliès ..... All the members of the orchestra
Jeanne d'Alcy
Georges Méliès ..... Barbe-bleue
Jeanne d'Alcy ..... Le nouvelle épouse de Barbe-bleue
Bleuette Bernon ..... La fée
Georges Méliès ..... Devil
Georges Méliès ..... Man with whiskers
André Méliès ..... Le Concierge
Georges Méliès ..... Le Locataire diabolique

Synopsis:

Georges Melies' innovations led to some of the earliest examples of fantasy filmmaking in the history of cinema. His creative time lapses, early experiments and use of the cinematic technique gave birth to ways of storytelling still commonly used today. This collection of shorts and experiments ranges from avant-garde to science fiction to documentary and greatly influenced the art of cinema both as a narrative form and a dreamy forum for magical imagery. Included in this collection are the following short films: 'The Four Troublesome Heads' (1898), 'Fat and Lean Wrestling Match' (1900),'The One-Man Band' (1900), 'The Man with the Rubber Head' (1901), 'Bluebeard' (1901), 'A Trip to the Moon' (1902), 'The Infernal Boiling Pot' (1903), 'The Infernal Cakewalk' (1903), 'The Music Lover (1903), The Living Playing Cards (1904), Hilarious Posters (1904), Imperceptible Transmutations' (1904), 'Untameable Whiskers' (1904), 'The Scheming Gambler's Paradise' (1905), and 'The Devilish Tenant' (1909). Also included are several early experimental tests that Melies attempted and a documentary explaining the man and his vision, 'The Magic of Melies' (1997) by Jacques Meny.

La magie Méliès (1997)
The Magic of Melies explores filmmaker's life and influence.

Four Heads Are Better Than One (1898)
One of the greatest of black art pictures. The conjurer appears before the audience, with his head in its proper place. He then removes his head, and throwing it in the air, it appears on the table opposite another head, and both detached heads sing in unison. The conjurer then removes it a third time. You then see all three of his heads, which are exact duplicates, upon the table at one time, while the conjurer again stands before the audience with his head perfectly intact, singing in unison with the three heads upon the table. He closes the picture by bowing himself from the stage.

The One Man Band (1900)
A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.

The Fat and the Lean Wrestling Match (1900)
This film is a winner, it being one of the most laughable of mysterious picture ever made. An extremely lean man and an extremely fat man are engaged in a wrestling match. The lean man attacks the fat one viciously but cannot budge him from the floor. After wrestling furiously for awhile, the fat man falls upon the lean one and crushes him as flat as a pancake. The fat man then rolls him up in a package about the size of a carpet bag and lays him on the floor, and winds up by tossing him high in the air. The lean man in coming down falls on the fat man's head, knocking him to the floor and causing hiim to explode in a great cloud of smoke, his body being distributed all over the stage. The portions of the fat man's body then begin slowly to come to life, the fat man jumping to his feet and making a hasty exit, seeming glad to get out of the way of his terrible opponent.

Bluebeard (1901)
Lord Bluebeard is looking for a woman to become his eighth wife, as his first seven wives have all passed away. Many noble families bring their daughters to meet him, but none of the young women want to marry him. Bluebeard's great wealth, however, persuades one father to give his daughter's hand to him. She reluctantly marries him, and after a lavish wedding feast she begins her new life in his castle. One day as Bluebeard is going away on a journey, he warns his wife never to go into a certain room. When her curiosity finally gets the best of her, she realizes that she has placed herself in great danger.

The India Rubber Head (1901)
A chemist in his laboratory places upon a table his own head, alive; then fixing upon his head a rubber tube with a pair of bellows, he begins to blow with all his might. Immediately the head increases in size and continues to enlarge until it becomes truly colossal while making faces. The chemist, fearing to burst it, opens a cock in the tube. The head immediately contracts and resumes its original size. He then calls his assistant and informs him of his discovery. The assistant, wishing to experiment for himself, seizes the bellows and blows into the head with all his might. The head swells until it bursts with a crash, knocking over the two experimenters.

A Trip to Mars (1902)
This early silent film by master artist and film pioneer Georges Melies is considered a classic by many film buffs. Although it runs for only 14 minutes this whimsical fantasy really focuses on an astronomers dream.

The Cake-Walk Infernal (1903)
Pluto, having seen the earth, comes back home amazed at the success of that well-known dance, the 'cake-walk.' He has brought back with him two noted well-known dancers, who start their favorite dance amidst the flames. A queer and ugly being wishes also to join in the dance, but his limbs break away and dance far from him. All the subjects of His Majesty are seized with the irresistible mania for dancing, and start an unbridled provincial dance. At this sight Satan starts out of the earth a large blaze, which annihilates everything around him, disappearing himself through the flames. This view has beautiful new effects and much improves with colors. For the first time in a cinematograph view one can see some of the will-o'-the-wisp wandering among human beings. The effect is magical.

The Music Lover (1903)
A marching band appears, and the band-leader prepares to give them the music for the song he wants them to play. He has prepared a large staff above their heads, and he now creates notes by making duplicates of his own head, placing them on the staff, and completing the notes with sticks and other implements taken from the band members. When he has finished, the players attempt to perform the music that has been written in such an unusual fashion.

The Infernal Caldron (1903)
Two demons have captured a woman, and they wrap her in a cloth and throw her into a boiling cauldron. One of the demons then brings in two more captives, who also are tossed into the cauldron. One demon then stirs the pot, while the other demon tries to summon forth the spirits of the recently departed.

The Living Playing Cards (1904)
A bearded magician holds up a large playing card and makes it larger. He tears up a card of a queen, burns the torn bits, and a life-size Queen of Hearts card appears; then, it becomes alive. The magician puts her back into the card. The same thing happens with the King of Clubs: the card becomes alive. The king removes his costume, and there's something very familiar about him.

The King of the Mackerel Fishers (1904)
A man stands at a chalk board and draws himself. Then, as the chalk drawing changes, the man himself goes through a series of transformations: he's bald, then he's an old bearded man, then he's mustachioed with pork-chop sideburns. The hair keeps changing as does the man's affect: aged with white hair, comic, Napoleonic, and, finally, devilish.

Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjuror (1904)
A Chinese conjurer stands next to a table, it becomes two tables. A fan becomes a parasol, lanterns appear and disappear. The conjurer spins the open parasol in front of himself, and a dog leaps out from behind it. The dog becomes a woman, then a second woman appears. The conjurer sits them each on a box a few feet apart: suddenly the women have changed places. The disappearing and the transfers continue in front of a simple backdrop.

The Scheming Gambler's Paradise (1905)
A combination gambling den and bawdy house is set up so that croupiers, patrons, prostitutes, and the owner can quickly change it all into a mercantile establishment when the cops stage a raid. The women become shop girls and customers, the men become clerks and shoppers. The craps table becomes a long counter. The police do raid the joint, and the nearly-instantaneous conversion into a dry goods store covers all the evidence. The police leave in dismay and disgust. But will they be back? What is their real motive?

The Hilarious Posters (1906)
A workman glues an advertisement in the center of other adverts on an outside wall along a city walk. It's an ad for 'love on credit,' featuring a comely lass. The posters come to life, interacting with the characters in the surrounding adverts: a publican's wife is jealous of his talking to the midnight cutie; a cook dumps food on a character beneath him. Then, two flics walk by, and the characters become inanimate. After the cops walk on, life returns. The poster people attack a swell beneath the wall, and he runs for the cops. They return, and the wall falls on them, revealing a gate behind which the poster folks laugh. Chaos ensues.

The Devilish Tenant (1909)
A man carrying a carpetbag comes to see the concierge of an apartment building, and is shown an unfurnished room that is available. He agrees to rent it, and opens up his bag so that he can begin to move in. The bag contains an astonishing variety of furnishings and decorations, and soon he and his family have settled in. All is well until the day comes when the rent is due.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 05 May, 2010.

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