Le mélomane

Georges Méliès had such a marvelous imagination that you should never be surprised with anything that he comes up with, but even when you've seen dozens of his features, there's still a good chance that the next one you see could have something new. In this short feature, he combines visual tricks with copies of his own head, something he had already done in a number of previous comedies, with an amusing and creative musical setting.

Méliès plays the leader of a marching band who shows them their music on a giant staff, using the heads and various other implements to write the music. It's funny, and the special effects are interesting and work quite well, as usual. (A previous reviewer has given a particularly apt description of the enjoyable trick with the heads.) It's a resourceful way to use a musical setting without having the benefit of the actual music or of any other sound, and it's also enjoyable to watch.

The Music Lover aka The Melomaniac

Well, it is different - I've never seen anything quite like this before. If you like silent film shorts and music you may get a kick out of this one.

5/10

More head play from Georges Melies, the man widely considered to be the master of cinema. This time, the early film director has a ball with a music-inspired sketch that employs greater variation and complexity to the likes of his head-swapping shorts from five years before. There's a larger cast, plenty of singing musical heads and decapitation and the auteur's use of surreal humour that makes it so unique. The alternate title is THE MUSIC LOVER and the story sees a music teacher becoming increasingly frustrated with his female students, to which end he decides to remove his head and utilise it in a unique musical display. Great stuff indeed.

Le mélomane is another of Georges Méliès trick films. In it he plays a musical instructor who teaches a group of female musicians in his own eccentric manner. In this case by using several Méliès heads to illustrate the notes. It's typically insane stuff from the master of innovation.

It recalls some of the ideas he invented in previous films. It's almost like a collision of L'homme orchestre and Un homme de têtes. It has the musical theme of the former and the multiple Méliès heads of the latter. So it doesn't really bring anything especially new to the table but it is well crafted nevertheless. Perhaps the oddest aspect about this production is that it appears to be a silent movie with a musical theme. Not exactly the most obvious combination it has to be said. The result is another charming oddity from this cinematic pioneer.

Melies had to be the most imaginative and creative of the early filmmakers as this surreal short shows. The master film magician appears in the role of music teacher who, chancing upon lines of telegraph wires in the country while out with his class, creates lines of music by detaching his head and throwing it up into the wires to form that little dot at the bottom of a music note. A new head instantly appears on his shoulders and Melies throws this one into the wires as well - a trick he repeats until a full line of music is created. We can only wonder where Melies got his ideas from - and why such a creative genius found it impossible to adapt to the increasing sophistication of film-making.