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Under the Seas
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Wikipedia article
'Under the Seas' is a silent film made in 1907 by the French director Georges Mlis. The film, a parody of the 1870 novel 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' by Jules Verne,Hammond 1974, p. 64 follows a fisherman who dreams of traveling by submarine to the bottom of the ocean, where he encounters both realistic and fanciful sea creatures, including a chorus of naiads.
Plot
Yves, a fisherman, comes home after a tiring day of fishing and soon falls asleep. In his dream, he is visited by the Fairy of the Ocean, who leads him to a submarine. Yves is made Lieutenant-in-Command and sets off on a submarine voyage.
A panorama of undersea views follow, including shipwrecks, underwater grottoes, huge shellfish, sea nymphs, sea monsters, starfish, mermaids, and a ballet of naiads. The ballet is interrupted by Yves, whose inexperience with submarines leads him to run his craft aground on a rock. Yves leaves the wrecked submarine and chases after the departing naiads, but is attacked by huge fish and crabs. He escapes and travels past further underwater marvels, including underwater caves, anemones, corals, giant seahorses, and an octopus that attacks him. However, in vengeance for all the fish Yves has caught in his career, goddesses of the sea trap the fisherman in a net and let him fall into a gigantic hollow sponge, from which he struggles to escape.
Waking up from the dream, Yves realizes that he has fallen from his bed into his bathtub, and is entangled in his own fishing net. His neighbors and friends free him from the confusion, and he treats them all to drinks at the nearest caf.
Production and release
The actor Manuel, who had appeared in Mlis's 1906 drama 'A Desperate Crime' and who would go on to direct some films for Mlis's studio in 1908,Malthte & Mannoni 2008, p. 196 plays Yves the fisherman; the chorus of naiads are played by dancers from the Thtre du Chtelet. The ballet in the film was choreographed by Madame Stitchel, the director of the Chtelet 'corps de ballet'; Stitchel also choreographed dances for other Mlis films, including 'The Chimney Sweep'.Malthte & Mannoni 2008, p. 332 Mlis's design for the film includes cut-out sea animals patterned after Alphonse de Neuville's illustrations for Verne's novel.
It was released by Mlis's Star Film Company and is numbered 912924 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a 'grande ferie fantaisiste en 30 tableaux'.Malthte & Mannoni 2008, p. 215 Like at least 4% of Mlis's entire output, some prints of the film were hand-tinted frame by frame by female factory workers and sold at a higher price.
The film survives as an incomplete fragment; some scenes are presumed lost.
See also
* 1907 in science fiction
Notes
Footnotes
References
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