Melies was not the first to explore this subject [see Guy's At the Photographer's and two films by Porter: Photographing a Country Couple and The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken], but his Une chute de cinq étages is surely the most elaborate and entertaining of the bunch. "Toro! Toro!" anyone?
Friday, July 20, 2012
Slapstick Summer Series: Semi-Meta | A Fall from Five Floors (1906)
As one might expect, the pioneers of motion pictures (being photographers themselves) often used the photographing process itself as a plot device within their films. With the evolution of prank-based comedies towards slaptick, a natural transition existed for these meta-ish films to introduce situations whereby the intended targets of still-shots instead remain in motion, resulting in chaos for the cameraman [anyone with kids can easily relate to this dilemma].
Melies was not the first to explore this subject [see Guy's At the Photographer's and two films by Porter: Photographing a Country Couple and The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken], but his Une chute de cinq étages is surely the most elaborate and entertaining of the bunch. "Toro! Toro!" anyone?
Melies was not the first to explore this subject [see Guy's At the Photographer's and two films by Porter: Photographing a Country Couple and The Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken], but his Une chute de cinq étages is surely the most elaborate and entertaining of the bunch. "Toro! Toro!" anyone?
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