L'avare

The Miser (1908)

aka L'avare

This Georges Melies film is only available in a five-minute fragment. The film starts off with a title card setting up the events. An elderly miser keep all of his money to himself and refuses to help people no matter what they might need. We see him turn away a few people and then portions of the film are missing and we pick up later in the story as the old man is scared of something (apparently someone stole his money). Considering there's a large portion of this film missing, it would be needless to fully judge it on any level. What scenes are here look pretty interesting and clearly you can't help but see a little of A Christmas Carol. I'm not sure how much of the film is missing but we never get to see what sends the old man out into the streets and I'm not sure if there was anything after this either. Still, I'm glad Flicker Alley included these fragment films but lets hope one day the complete thing turns up.

I should point out that although I have read a few of Moliere's plays, I have never read "The Miser" and know nothing about it. This Georges Méliès film is based on that and I have no idea if it's close to the story or not. So, I read a summary and have to say that what I saw seemed to have little to do with the play! And, according to IMDB, the entire film no longer exists...only a 4 minute fragment. Fortunately, the quality of the print is quite nice...which I didn't expect since it was fragmented.

The story is set in the miser's office. He keeps a large safe there and various people come to him for help but being a stingy old guy, he tells them to get lost. He also spends much of his time worrying about and hiding his money. Clearly the man is not exactly overflowing with the milk of human kindness!

The film then jumps ahead to a scene outside at a well. The miser is rolling about on the ground for no discernible reason when folks come upon him. He's very distraut....you assume he's lost his money. And then, the film ends.

You really cannot make much out of the story here. Obviously we are missing important portions and what's left is confusing and a mess. The sets, however, are quite nice and it's worth watching IF you are a huge fan of the director...otherwise, you'd do better with one of his other films.

I likes what I saw. The whole thing with the miser was well acted. He is obviously mentally ill in that all the money he has isn't giving him any pleasure. So when a starving man and a poor woman with children come to see him, he turns them away. The problem is that we see another part of the film where villagers prevent him from falling in a well. He goes off with his money in tow. I assume that in the original screenplay, there is a time of reckoning, just based on the morality of the time.