The innovative filmmaker Georges Méliès made well over 500 films...all in a stretch of about 17 years! He's mostly forgotten today but is someone who is considered one of the first great filmmakers. And, Martin Scorsese himself talked about this in his film "Hugo"...one you really must see.
I mention the number of films because although I adore his films, Georges Méliès had a tendency to make the same sorts of films again and again and again. In at least a hundred of his films, you see the filmmaker doing a magic show in front of a stationary camera....and he employs various camera tricks to make things seem to appear, disappear and change. And, "Jacques et Jim" is one of these films.
This film is much like the rest though it's intended to be a comedy. So, in typical early 1900s fashion, this means wearing goofy outfits and using exaggerated 'funny' movements. It's all very unfunny and about as subtle as a nudist showing up at a Baptist picnic! But it's also amazing stuff for its time.
In this one, two weirdly dressed guys use a barrel and bucket to make things appear and change. They make chickens, a lady, pigs and all sorts of thing come out of the barrel and then disappear.
So is it worth seeing? Well, it depends on you. If you are obsessed with Méliès, then by all means watch it. For everyone else, it's very much like so many of his films that seeing yet another might be one too many. You decide....but it is pretty clever for 1903.
I mention the number of films because although I adore his films, Georges Méliès had a tendency to make the same sorts of films again and again and again. In at least a hundred of his films, you see the filmmaker doing a magic show in front of a stationary camera....and he employs various camera tricks to make things seem to appear, disappear and change. And, "Jacques et Jim" is one of these films.
This film is much like the rest though it's intended to be a comedy. So, in typical early 1900s fashion, this means wearing goofy outfits and using exaggerated 'funny' movements. It's all very unfunny and about as subtle as a nudist showing up at a Baptist picnic! But it's also amazing stuff for its time.
In this one, two weirdly dressed guys use a barrel and bucket to make things appear and change. They make chickens, a lady, pigs and all sorts of thing come out of the barrel and then disappear.
So is it worth seeing? Well, it depends on you. If you are obsessed with Méliès, then by all means watch it. For everyone else, it's very much like so many of his films that seeing yet another might be one too many. You decide....but it is pretty clever for 1903.
