The Mermaid (1905)

I usually have a rule that a film must be at least 5 minutes long before I am willing to review it, but after recently watching Hugo (2011), I’ve decided to make an exception for the short films of Georges Melies because they are responsible for creating some of the most amazing early movie making tricks.

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Number of Times Seen – 1 (11 May 2017)

Brief Synopsis – A magician conjures up fish and works his way up to a mermaid.

My Take on it – Over a century ago, Georges Melies was thought of as one of the premiere film makers because he was able to think of new and innovative ways to show us how the new medium of film could take us places and show us things that we never thought would be possible.

This film is slightly above average because it doesn’t do much yet for it’s time it was such an innovative idea.

Melies loved to have his characters perform magic tricks onscreen that would be enhanced by the magic of moviemaking itself in order to make it look even more spectacular.

This film essentially is one long magic trick where the magician starts off small and slowly increases his trick until he reaches great heights.

Bottom Line – Another fun if not above average film from the mind of Melies. Loved the way that they use the magic of moviemaking to make a magician’s trick seem and feel even more real.  The idea to use filmmaking techniques to show us magic is a great one because it helps raise the level of enjoyment. Obviously when looking at this film a century after it was made makes it seem quite primitive, but for that time this was amazingly thought out and done.

Rating – Globe Worthy

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