Un homme de têtes (1898) - film review

A conjurer removes his head and places it on a table.  Instantly, he grows a second head, identical to the first.  As the head on the table looks around, the conjurer crawls under the table to show this is no sleight of hand.  He then removes his new head and places it on the table next to the first head, and again grows another.  This third head he removes and places on a second table, before growing a fourth.  The conjurer produces a banjo and begins to sing with his three detached heads.  Losing his patience, the conjurer smashes the three detached heads with his banjo, before exiting with a bow.

Widely regarded as a miniature masterpiece of the silent era, Un homme de têtes is a short comic film which bubbles with wit and energy, amply demonstrating Georges Méliès’ extraordinary talent as both a performer and filmmaker.  The inventiveness of Méliès’ performance is surpassed only by the technical wizardry he shows in this film, which is pure cinematic magic.

© James Travers 2003

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