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The Microscopic Dancer
“This is an absolutely new and extraordinary subject. A juggler takes in succession about a dozen eggs out of his servant's mouth. He breaks all the eggs into a hat, and after having beaten them up after the manner of a cook, he extracts an egg as large as the hat itself. As soon as he sets this egg on the table there appears a tiny dancing girl, full of life, as big as a baby's doll, and who performs on the table some beautiful stage dances. All of a sudden she increases to the size of a ordinary woman, and jumping on the floor she delights the audience with her turns. The juggler and the dancing girl disappear in the most extraordinary way.” (Méliès Catalog)
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Reviews
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Two men come on stage. The one is a magician. He puts a table out with a little stand that hold eggs. He proceeds to get six eggs by patting him on the back, an egg coming out of his mouth. Six times and the stand is full. He then cracks the egg, putting them in his hat. He then turns the hat upside down on his friend. There are a couple of other egg- related events that take place, including a ballerina who comes out of a large egg.
Dancing Midget, The (1902) ** 1/2 (out of 4) aka La Danseuse microscopique A couple magicians (one played by Melies) come on stage and do a few magic tricks but their encore involved taking an egg and turning it into a midget woman and then making the woman normal size. This is a pretty standard film from the legendary director as it has some mild charm but none of the tricks are anything we haven't seen before. The actual dancing that goes on with the midget is mildly amusing as is the way she's brought to life but the effects are standard for the director.
Melies began as a stage magician and his movies always show this influence and technique. However, he was certainly not averse to using cinematic magic even when the stage magician knew how to make these illusions without a stopped or masked camera. In this film, he uses film techniques to make eggs come out of his assistant's mouth and to make people switch places. The use of these techniques and their apparent ease must have had more effect on the audience of his day. They are still a lot of fun.This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.
