Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Hitchcoc This was so much fun. Melies is a music teacher/conductor. He comes on stage, followed by his musicians/singers. He carries around a huge treble clef. Once the dancing has stopped, he throws the clef in the air and it sticks on a giant music staff. Now he does the wackiest thing. He begins to throw heads (his head) up to the music staff and they form notes. He also throws the stems up. I'm not sure if he is a half note or a quarter note. But once complete, the singers turn to the audience and begin to use the French version of do-re-mi on cards in front of them. And then they stop and exit the stage in a frenetic dance. It is so much fun.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) This is a tip that you can give basically everybody who works in a creative profession, but the composer that Georges Méliès plays in this 3-minute, black-and-white silent short film takes it as literally as it gets. "Le mélomane" or "The Melomaniac" or "The Music Lovers" was made by Méliès shortly after his 40th birthday, pretty much in the middle of his career. In my opinion, there are better and worse short films from the early 20th century out there. Still, I have to say I was not too impressed by this movie here. The comedy quickly disappears after the heads are on top and everything afterward is fairly forgettable. Still, it's one of the more known Méliès works, so I thought why not give it a chance. Slightly disappointing and I won't recommend it.

MartinHafer You've just got to see the films of Méliès, as they are the cleverest and best made films of his era--period. Unlike the relatively plot less, setless and pointless films of Edison and Lumiere, Méliès' films were pure genius and inspired--with a strong dose of fantasy. His Le Voyage Dans le Lune is a landmark film due to its amazing special effects, camera tricks and watchability.This film carries on in this same tradition--with the absolutely wildest and strangest trickery I've seen from the era. The film begins with a conductor explaining to his musicians how to write music. So, the conductor begins throwing notes up into the air where they magically stick. And, the notes?! Yep, they are his head--he pulls off his head and throws it upwards--and a new one appears in its place! You just gotta see it to believe it!If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'The Melody Maniac' is one of the 'stunt' films of Georges Melies, in which the action is centred upon trick photography. This is one of his best efforts. It's a shame that this movie was shot silent, as music is central to this film's action ... and it would have been amusing to learn if the actors on screen (portraying band musicians) were actually able to play music competently.SPOILERS THROUGHOUT. This entire short film consists of a single camera set-up. Melies himself, in a magnificent uniform, plays the leader of a marching band. We see five parallel wires strung across the top half of the frame, forming a musical staff. With great fanfare, Melies goose-steps in from the left side of the frame, accompanied by his musicians ... all of them tootling furiously. The musicians take their positions. Standing directly under the musical staff, Melies pulls off his own head and throws it upwards so that it catches on the overhead wires. As soon as he loses his head, an identical head conveniently materialises at the end of his neck. (This effect is like one of those boxes of tissues: pull out the top tissue, and another one is conveniently sticking up to take its place.) Melies repeatedly pulls off his own head (a whole series of heads) and tosses them upwards to hang on the music staff. When the staff is full, his musicians play the notes. At this point, all the 'notes' (heads) vanish, and Melies continues the process to fill the staff again.Interestingly, the notes which Melies places on the staff are the opening bars of a real piece of music: namely, the British anthem 'God Save the King' ... or the American melody 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' (same music, different words). The fact that Melies chose an Anglo-American melody, rather than a French one, suggests that he was actively courting the international market for his films. 'The Melody Maniac' is a delight, and I'll rate it 10 out of 10.