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Summary
An eccentric conductor leads a chorus of women to row of telegraph poles supporting five
wires. The conductor starts throwing musical symbols onto the wires and creates
six notes by pulling off his head six times and throwing it on the improvised stave.
Having composed his piece of music, the conductor leads the chorus and a drummer.
Their work done, the musical troupe marches away.
Review
In this hilarious short film, Georges Méliès shows his talent both as a
lithe comic performer and as a master of the cinematic art of his day. Méliès
uses the technique of multiple exposure (which he invented and used repeatedly in his
films) almost to its limit - exposing the film no less than seven times to allow himself
to appear seven times in the same frame. This is accompanied by an extraordinary
amount of trick splicing (another of the filmmaker’s much-used devices), allowing Méliès
to create some bizarre illusions (such as repeatedly pulling off his head).
Only a genius of Méliès’ standing could have conceived such a mad film and
have realised it with such technical and artistic brilliance.
© James Travers 2003
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