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Too much of everything

Simply A Masterpiece

Overrated

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The correct French title does not appear at the beginning of the film. So it made it hard to find a place to write a comment. This is a very strange film. An alchemist runs a drug producing business. He seems intent on only selling his products to rich clients. When a ragamuffin comes in, he is quickly shown the exit. In what appears to be a practical joke, his assistants put something in his drink, and he begins to have horrible dreams and hallucinations. The special effects are pretty bad with guys running around draped in sheets. The guy goes into utter panic mode and tries to talk to the men. They think this is kind of funny, but he is terrified. Anyway, this is an odd film which would probably speak to modern audiences.

This film by the french filmmaker Georges Melies runs at 13 minutes and is included on the last disc of Flicker Alley's wonderful box set, 'Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema.' I can see there are no user reviews on this one yet, and that's because everybody just does not know what to make of it. And I didn't either until I read the summary online. The people on Flicker Alley could've put a card at the beginning, like they do on other films, but no. This is really confusing, but I'll summarize it as best I can.Apparently this is a moral story about an alchemist who owns a pharmacy for the rich. His assistants play a trick on him and put a drug in his medicine, and when he takes a nap at the back of the pharmacy ( the drug probably made him sleepy ) he experiences some mysterious ghosts who terrify him ( some of them are played by the assistants; they try to cover them with the sheets but you still can tell the same actors were being used again ). His assistants tell him to go see a famous sorcerer who might be able to help him. The sorcerer brings forth a fairy who turns the pharmacy into a candy shop for the poor. The End.Fans of the directer will want to watch this, but others new to Melies should go for shorter and less sophisticated stuff. The highlight of this is definitely the part with the mysterious phantoms.