Le voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les géants

Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants (1902)

*** (out of 4)

aka La Voyage de Gulliver a Lilliput et chez les geants

The famous story is partially retold here by director Melies in a pretty impressive film. We see Culliver getting along in a town with the small people but soon dangers lurks them all. This is a very impressive little film from the director as it manages to be quite magical in its short four plus minute running time. The entire film is hand colored, which gives it more of a fantasy feel. The movie runs along at a good speed and the special effects are very well done and hold up quite well. The magical cage that Gulliver picks up and sits on the table is one of the highlights. If you look quick at the start of the film you can see a sea, which appears to be the same set from A Trip to the Moon.

This short movie, is a great technical masterpiece by a legendary master of Cinema. The film is loosely based on Jonathan Swift's classic (as only mentions Gulliver's first encounters with Lilliputians and the Giants), nor has any thematic statements about the original story; but is an excellent example of Georges Méliès' magnificent technical abilities, which are amazing for us in the 21st century as much as for people in 120 years ago. Méliès is an eternal master of Cinema.

Since Gulliver's Travels is a massive book, to try to even approach it in 4 minutes is utterly absurd. But Melies does really well with Gulliver as a big man and a little man. The settings are marvelous and the superimposing of Gulliver, especially in Lilliput is very good. A couple things. We who read the book know how he put out that fire. Right? I was interested why the title character was portrayed as so old. He was pretty young when he set out on his journey, and still a middle aged man as he approached him. I wonder why Melies saw him this way.

This version of "Gulliver's Travels" by Georges Méliès lasts only four minutes long...which isn't unusual for 1902. However, Jonathan Swift's novel is quite long and the only way to make it in four minutes is to pretty much skip all the plot! So, there's no context or explanation for anything! It's a shame, as technically it's a lovely film for its day...but only showing a few disparate pieces of the book really does the story a huge disservice.

Worth seeing if you are a huge Georges Méliès fan, otherwise he's simply done much better films that I suggest you try first.

This brief and charming fantasy was produced by Georges Méliès, master of the trick film. It was completed not long after his epochal "Le voyage dans la lune," the cinema's premiere science-fiction adventure, which was based on a story by Jules Verne. This version of Jonathan Swift's famous tale is considerably shorter and simpler than the Verne adaptation, and features only a few key moments from the first two sections of Swift's novel, but the scenic and photographic effects are impressive, and demonstrate what this director could achieve when he was at the top of his game. And happily, a hand-colored print survives that looks like a brightly illustrated edition of the book come to life.

It's likely that the film originally began with a shipwreck sequence, but as it stands today the surviving footage begins abruptly with the image of a giant Gulliver striding through Lilliput, stepping over rooftops. This Gulliver is an old man with a white beard and a hooked nose, a comical old fellow who mugs and gesticulates vigorously throughout. (I believe he's played by Méliès himself, but I'm not sure about that.) Next, he's trussed up and sleeping as the small but angry citizens of Lilliput gather on a bridge above him with spears and pitchforks, and prod him aggressively. Soon afterward, however, the giant guest receives friendlier treatment: Gulliver sits at an enormous dinner table as a team of tiny chefs serve him food. A royal procession arrives, but the pageantry is interrupted when a fire breaks out in the castle, causing a panic. This Gulliver, being more fastidious than Swift's, puts out the flames with a spray of seltzer water.

And then suddenly we're in Brobdingnag, the land of the giants. This world is represented in a sequence apparently set in a palace. We see a tight medium shot of three individuals (highly unusual in Méliès' surviving work), two nobles and a midget who is probably a court jester. The nobles play cards while the jester chatters away, but the trio are interrupted when a lady arrives and excitedly deposits a small bundle on the table: it's Gulliver of course, shocked at the size of the giants who surround him. Everyone gestures vigorously. In the final shot Gulliver is alone with the lady and tries to speak to her, but she indicates she can't hear him. He attempts to climb a ladder to address her but falls backward into a huge teacup!

Needless to say, this very short film provides only a quick montage of amusing moments, not a story which can stand on its own for anyone unfamiliar with Swift, but it's strikingly well made for its time and still funny. Here is a fine sample of imaginative special effects work by a legendary film-making pioneer, at the height of his creative powers.