L'enchanteur Alcofribas

This trick film by the french filmmaker Georges Méliès doesn't really feel like anything new, considering the filmmaker made many of these films, but it's pleasant enough while it lasts. The four-minute piece is about a prince who wants a beautiful girl to wed, so he seeks the aid of an wizard, (Alcofribas, played by Méliès himself no doubt) who conjures up several women but makes them all disappear--all to the befuddlement of the prince. The tricks are nothing new except one sequence when they superimposed a closeup of a woman's head onto the screen, which is both rare in the director's career somewhat and looked pretty good. The rest of the superimposing is rather sloppily done, but the sets are quite good, and there's more of a plot then usual. It's doesn't really stand out considering he made many similar shorts at the time, but is nevertheless very nice to watch.

Alcofribas, the Master Magician (1903)

** (out of 4)

aka L' Enchanteur Alcofrisbas

This Melies short takes place in what appears to be an abandoned cave. Inside the cave, Melies as well as another magician, try to create fire as well as bring a woman to life. This short runs just under four minutes and for the most part I found it boring. None of the tricks we see here are very original as they've been used in countless Melies films and I also found some of them quite lazy. There's one sequence where a woman rises into the air but it's so obvious how they are doing this trick that it never becomes entertaining. If you've never seen a Melies film then I'm sure you'll be amazed at the special effects but if you've seen several of his films then you'll notice that this one really doesn't hold up with his best work.

"L'enchanteur Alcofribas" is certainly NOT one of filmmaker Georges Méliès' best films. While I love the man's films and he was a great innovator, here the story is confusing (I had no idea WHAT was happening until I read the IMDB summary) and the trick photography is sloppy...something rare for his 500+ films.

A prince asks a sorcerer to help him learn who his fiancee should be. While in this cave, all sorts of weird stuff occurs and in the end a lot of demony-ghosty folks appear and chase the prince about for no apparent reason.

Among the many film tricks employed in this film, two stand out because they are so poorly executed. Twice images from one set of footage is super-imposed on the film...but in both cases it's not at all lined up properly and really should have been re-done. But I guess with Georges Méliès, sometimes it was more about quantity versus consistent quality...and this is among the poorest and confusing films I've seen...and I've probably seen close to 200 or more of them.