Le merveilleux éventail vivant

A conjurer, eager to impress the royal representative whom he is entertaining (from past experience, I'm assuming that Georges Méliès portrays one of these people, and I suspect that he is the conjurer), has a large box carried to the centre of the stage. Upon the box is written 'L'Eventail Magique / The Magical Fan.' At the wave of his hand, the box begins to mechanically disassemble itself, revealing a gigantic fan which spreads out and spans the entire screen. But the conjurer still has a few impressive tricks up his sleeve – with another wave of his hand, the parts of the fan dissolve into seven women, and the magician is able to change their costumes and such.

Whilst undoubtedly an inventive little film, 'The Wonderful Living Fan' leaves much to be desired. Though only running for three or so minutes, the routine does get a bit dull and repetitive, lacking the enthusiastic energy of many of Méliès' other "stage act" shorts. It's difficult to believe that, in the same year that the filmmaker produced this film, he was also creating such timeless, endlessly imaginative films as the 24-minute long 'Le Voyage à travers l'impossible / The Impossible Voyage.'

About all that happens in this three minute effort is that two men from the past are talking. One describes a fan to the other. He is not impressed at first. Then out comes a huge box that contains a gigantic Chinese fan. It spreads out and after a few moments it transforms into a fan made of women, like spokes in a wheel. Unfortunately, they don't do anything and it ends.

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.

While compared to other movies being made at the time this is a very good film, for fans of Méliès it is a major let-down--as the plot is practically non-existent and as a result the film is rather dull but with pretty imagery and cinematography. Plus, on top of that, the film appears stagy--much like a stage performance of Méliès that has been filmed and enhanced through trick cinematography.

Wonderful Living Fan, The (1904)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Merveilleux éventail vivant

Melies plays a conjurer putting on a show for a royal crowd. The big trick of the show involves a large box that, when unfolded, becomes a fan made up of seven women. The trick movie has some impressive scenes like Melies making the women change clothing but overall I found it rather dull and slow even at just over three minutes. This year would turn out to be a very big one for the director but you really wouldn't know it by watching this film.

Perhaps efforts like this were a precursor of Melies eventual fate as a filmmaker. The French magician had already made the stupendous Le Voyage dans la lune the previous year, and this stage-bound effort is a definite step backward in terms of both inventiveness and technique. There's no real story to speak of, just a magic trick in which a giant fan is transformed into a group of females for the delight of the King of France. The stop-motion trickery is fairly obvious, but still manages to retain a certain charm missing from today's CGI effects. The print of this film was astonishingly clean and pristine. Probably one for Melies completists only.