Hydrothérapie fantastique

Hydrothérapie fantastique (1910)

*** (out of 4)

aka The Doctor's Secret

This here isn't the best film Georges Melies ever made but it's certainly one of the most bizarre. An overweight man goes to a doctor (Melies) looking for "help" so the doctor does a couple experiments on him. It starts off by drilling a hole into the man and sucking out some sort of fluid and eventually they accidentally blow the man up and have to put him back together again. It's funny that this film would be made the same year as Edison's FRANKENSTEIN because this movie starts out like a liposuction ad and turns into a Frankenstein-like tale. The ending where the man gets blown up and then put back together was extremely well-done as the director clearly had better technology where his editing tricks could be done without being as noticeable as in previous years. I thought the moments right after the man being put back together were quite good as he pretty much has to learn to walk again and this too could be connected back to the Frankenstein tale. The earlier stuff is just as weird as they do a variety of experiments on this man and needless to say, not many of them go right.

An overweight man goes to a clinic to lose weight. The entire episode involves the use of about a half a dozen machines (torture devices) to get rid of his weight. At one point they use some sort of turkey baster to suck water out of the man. Then he is pummeled and squeezed and pounded. At the end there is a dramatic event that solves the problem. Of course, it is so beyond belief that a person could withstand the things they do to him. Of course, if one ever saw "Home Alone" there is not much that still doesn't exist.

The IMDb date for this short could be debated--Wikipedia claims Méliès never actually made any films at all in 1910, and in fact ceased production by 1909, hence this movie was made that year--while film historian John Frazer argues he made movies both years. It remains unclear to me which is right--the excuse for not making any movies in 1910, that he went to travel Europe with a stage magic spectacle, seems accurate enough, but a historian's claims would tend to be more correct than online sources.

This 10-minute Méliès film, outside his head movies, is one of the most bizarre works he made in his entire career in concept and execution. One might even go as far as to call it a science-fiction movie. The film begins with a doctor (Méliès himself, wearing a wig) in his office when his assistants bring in a fat man who can barely get around due to his bulk. They start with running a few experiments to see what's causing his weight, before taking action and running him through various machines which are more like pure terror than help. Finally, the man's problems are solved in a completely Méliès-esque twist, not to be spoiled for those who haven't seen it.

If there are any flaws to be acknowledged in this film, one such thing is, evidently, the pacing. Even at only 10 minutes long it feels padded and drags along rather slowly, containing an overly lengthy opening sequence. That said, the special effects are excellent and better done than many other ones from the same era, even from Méliès himself. The dismembered body multiple exposures looks better than all the CGI seen nowadays and the bizarre, humorous atmosphere that is the director's trademark is certainly there. In addition, the medium closeups for the 'before' and 'after' were also rather unusual for Méliès and look good here, although many other filmmakers, such as Griffith, were starting to use such techniques more and more. Unique, especially when compared to the other works the director was making at this point.

Feels a little like Melies was running out of ideas by the time he got around to making this frantic comedy, and filling the longer running times also seemed to be a problem. There are a few inventive moments here, but there's also a lot of empty space between those moments.

After what looks like a foreshadowing of lipo-suction, an obese man is put increasingly complicated hydrotherapy contraptions in an attempt to reduce his girth. The last, a box that looks like a one person steam-room explodes, scattering fragments of machine and patient. When the man is reassembled, he is thin, svelte and happy, and poses for 'before and after' shots. The film has a stagey, magic-show look as various machines are wheeled about by the doctor's assistants and the substitution splices were, by 1910, routine 'special effects'. Entertaining for what it is: a minor, one joke short.