La sirène

Mermaid, The (1904)

*** (out of 4)

aka La Sirène

Once again Melies plays a magician who fills up an aquarium tank only to put some of the water into his top hot where he then goes fishing. The second part of the film deals with the title character who also appears out of no where. This is a pretty good little film that manages to have some nice laughs and some very good trick shots. Some of the special effects are obvious but there are others, like the one on one fishing scenes, that hold up very, very well. The mermaid stuff I didn't care too much for but the visual beauty is certainly there.

This short silent film is part of the DVD collection entitled "The Magic of Méliès" and is the fourth volume of THE MOVIES BEGIN series from Kino Video. Unlike copies of Méliès' films that are posted on the internet, the prints for these short films are exceptionally crisp and clean and feature wonderful musical scores. Oddly, though, is that aside from a few films such as THE BLACK IMP and THE IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGE, most of the shorts chosen for this DVD are actually not among the best of Méliès' films--having a strong tendency to show is "stagy" material as opposed to the films that have elaborate sets and plots. In particular, my favorites such as BARBE-BLEUE and LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE (his most famous film) are not on this DVD.

This is a pretty dull film, as much of it is simply a movie of Méliès performing magic tricks. In person this might be interesting, but on film (where it's no trick to use camera tricks to make a magician seem great), it just doesn't impress. Then, when the mermaid enters the picture, she is pretty sloppily integrated compared to the camera tricks in many of the director's other short films. All in all, among the worst and least inspiring films of this film genius and pioneer.

During the dawn of cinema, no filmmaker was more creative and fantastic than the French magician turned director Georges Méliès, the man behind countless classic fantasies. "The Mermaid" is among his many efforts and it enraptures his style more so than most of his other movies can. Méliès, himself, plays the lead role as a magician who shows off some of his finest tricks before finally summoning a mermaid as a sort of climax to his act. The film is comical and light in tone and is likely to leave most viewers with a bright, shining smile across their lips, and many will be able to find that stem in their brain that encourages all of the wonderment and excitement of childhood.

The editing here is clearly revolutionary for its time, although it may seem ridiculously flawed and obvious nowadays, back in 1905 it was anything but. Classic camera tricks are constantly being used to their full advantage as Méliès playfully shows off his skills in the crafts of magic and cinema (or, should I say, cinemagic).

There is indeed a mermaid who is trying to deal with humans who can't seem to get along. There are goldfish and other wet things. We are treated to a lot of running around and going nowhere (or at least not too far). The mermaid has unique qualities. The stop action tricks are haphazard at best and have been done by this man so often.

In this silent-era black-and-white film, Georges Méliès showcases his stage magician roots by performing a series of tricks with a hat-primarily pulling out various animals, including several fish and a rabbit. The objects he conjures become increasingly large and elaborate, culminating in the appearance of a mermaid.

From there, the story shifts into a fantastical sequence where the mermaid transforms into a human and back again, now accompanied by the magician, who transforms himself into the King of Atlantis. In many ways, the second half of the film feels like a surreal precursor to modern aquatic fantasies-imagine a blend of Aquaman and Disney's recent adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

While the tricks may no longer surprise today's viewers, they are impressive examples of the creativity and innovation that early filmmakers like Méliès brought to the screen to captivate their audiences.