Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1903
The Melomaniac
Buy The Melomaniac now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Melomaniac' is a 1903 French silent film directed by Georges Mlis.
Plot
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
Mlis himself plays the lead role of the music master. The superimposition effects in 'The Mlomaniac', allowing multiple Mlis 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. The rest of the film's special effects were created with substitution splices.
The film was released by Mlis's Star Film Company and is numbered 479480 in its catalogues. The film was registered for American copyright at the Library of Congress on 30 June 1903.
The French film scholars Jacques Malthte and Laurent Mannoni believe 'The Mlomaniac' to be Mlis's most famous trick film, and a Mlis guide from the Centre national de la cinmatographie judges that the film merits that position. Film critic William B. Parrill rates it "innovative and creative".
References
Buy The Melomaniac now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1903