Search - The Magic of Melies (1904-1908) on DVD

A redo of a previous Kino DVD on Melies

calvinnme | 03/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This appears to be a redo of a DVD that Kino has as part of its DVD set The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913. It appears to have the same films by Melies that the earlier DVD had, but this new DVD also has the 20-minute documentary "Georges Méliès: Cinema Magician" directed by Patrick Montgomery and Luciano Martinengo. I just hope that Kino got rid of the one rather annoying aspect of the entire "The Movies Begin" set, which is the text notes that serve as a poor substitute for a commentary track.

Melies was one of the early pioneers in special effects for the movies, and he artfully combined medieval and Victorian views of society and science with modern technology. The result was often comedy blended with social commentary. The list of films include:

The Impossible Voyage (1904)
The Untamable Whiskers (1904)
The Cook in Trouble (1904)
Tchin-Chao, The Chinese Conjurer (1904)
The Wonderful Living Fan (1904)
The Mermaid (1904)
The Living Playing Cards (1905)
The Black Imp (1905)
The Enchanted Sedan Chair (1905)
The Scheming Gamblers Paradise (1905)
The Hilarious Posters (1906)
The Mysterious Retort (1906)
The Eclipse (1907)
Good Glue Sticks (1907)
Long Distance Wireless Photography (1908)

If you can afford the new DVD set Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), that is probably going to be far superior to this set. However, this is probably a good economical introduction to Melies."