Métamorphoses

A trick photography film in the style of Melies from his long-term rival Segundo De Chomon. As it was released in 1912 - a time when cinema had moved on from these type of movies - it feels very outdated, even though the use of stop-motion is quite impressive.

Segundo de Chomón was a wonderful filmmaker, though if you watch a lot of early French films you realize that so much of what he made was copied, or perhaps we should say 'liberally inspired", by the films of Georges Méliès. Much of what you see in "Métamorphoses" looks like the work of this other filmmaker...though it's a nice looking short film regardless.

A woman dressed in unusual garb is doing magic on camera. But instead of looking and acting like a magician, you can only guess that she's a fairy or witch or goddess or whatnot. She uses her want to make burning things turn into other things (done by stopping and starting the camera as well as reversing the footage). Then, she begins turning things into other things....and the film ends.

Nothing all that new here but enjoyable nonetheless.

By 1912 Segundo de Chomon, a Spanish filmmaker who worked for Pathe Freres from France, had ended his career at the french company and was now attempting to make his own films independently. His most active years had been 1905-1908, by 1909 he was ceasing production and by 1910 was almost done. Part of the reason of this was probably because the trick films and fairy-tales that had been popular during the earlier years of cinema were now becoming outdated. Thus, director had to pursue filmmaking elsewhere, attempting to start (without success) the short-lived Iberico Film Company. Considering by 1912 he was almost out of the picture, this one would thus be one of those few films released by the little-known studio.

"Metamorphoses" is another magic act by the director, this time involving various transformations as performed by an oddly-dressed woman (France Mathieu, who was probably related to the director's wife Julienne) who makes various objects turn into others, simply using a delicate flame and a few closeup shots to show the tricks. There is some stop-motion animation as well, something the director was known for and something Melies never really did, and the film is visually impressive in its effective use of visuals.

And what is it that makes the visuals effective? Closeups. Unlike what Méliès was doing all the way up to 1909, Chomón here goes for a much more elaborate style in his use of cutting close to the table first, then going to a medium closeup and then a closeup to display the illusions. (The end is an exception and mostly is just a lot of pretty girls posing around beautiful flowery sets). By 1912 Griffith had entirely discovered the usefulness of cutting and although Chomón had always been more innovative in that sense, he here takes it even further. It's not outstanding but the early visuals with the flame closeups are something new to look at from what we've seen before.

In this film, camera tricks are used to help a beautiful female magician perform feats no stage magician could accomplish. The director employs various techniques of the time-most of them simple, such as stop-motion animation or reversed clips. To make them more impressive, many clips are first shown normally and then reversed-sometimes with the reversed clip featuring a different object altogether. The director seems particularly fascinated by fire-scenes of burning objects, where items turn to ashes, re-emerge from flames, or transform into something else, make up a significant part of the film's tricks. I suppose they saw fire as the perfect symbol of metamorphosis, which fits well with the film's title.

For most of his career, Segundo de Chomon had been the competitor of Georges Melies. In 1912, the year that Melies turned out his last pictures, de Chomon did his last in the style of Melies: a magic act of transformations.

However, while Melies' work had remained largely static for the previous five years, growing in size and spectacle rather than in essence, here we see that de Chomon, who had begun in the industry as a cameraman, had learned much. Melies' work had remained a mixture of stage and simple camera illusion, smoke and mirrors and stopped cameras for transformations, all shot in medium long shot, whether real or illusory. In this movie, de Chomon not only uses these tricks, he uses stop motion animation freely in an effort to keep the now simple magic act up to date.

Because there were no more works in this vein, it would appear that this was not a financial success. Both their times had passed. Melies lost his studio and burned his negatives in despair. De Chomon went back into more purely cinematographic efforts, including travelogues.