L'homme orchestre (1900)

Director:

Georges Méliès

Genre:

Short | Fantasy

Plot:

A band-leader assembles an orchestra by mystifying means.

Plot Keywords:

Orchestra | Trick Film | Trick Photography

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Georges Méliès

...

All the members of the orchestra

Also Known As:

The One Man Band (International: English title)
The One-Man Band (USA)

Runtime:

3 min

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Star Film

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Play House (1921)

Tricky

'The One-Man Band' is one of early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès' more amusing and ingenious trick film attractions. It exploits multiple-exposure photography (a.k.a. superimpositions), which he had already employed in some of his earlier trick films, including 'The Four Troublesome Heads' (1898) and 'The Mysterious Portrait' (1899). There is also some substitution splicing (a.k.a. stop substitutions), which was Méliès' most common trick. In this film, he uses multiple-exposure photography to reproduce his own image sevenfold—to create a band, who then play their various instruments in an amusingly hammy manner. To accomplish this feat took precise acting and direction from Méliès, as well as from his cameraman; camera masks were used and exact timing was required for the seven different exposures of the negative. It was all done in-camera. As indication of the sophistication of Méliès' trick here, Buster Keaton has received praise for technical and creative brilliance by doing the same thing 21 years later in 'The Playhouse'.