A Fantastical Meal (1900)
A family sits down to enjoy a meal that ends up being fraught with complications.
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Perfect cast and a good story
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It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
Three people are trying to have a meal. Melies genius comes to the fore when mundane activities, like eating or taking a nap, lead to all kinds of craziness. This starts with the trio trying to sit down and having their chairs disappear. Then a huge soup tureen is brought in, but in the tureen are some gigantic boots. When the turkey is brought in, everything happens to prevent it from being consumed. The conclusion is utterly surreal. These films have been improving since I viewed the earliest ones.
In this black-and-white, 90-second silent film, we see a family at the table apparently ready to eat dinner. However, things do not go as planned at all when the table keeps rising, the cloth won't stand still and even a ghost-like creature appears. This is one of these Méliès films where he is not the center of attention alone, but still the mastermind behind the film. There are more actors in here. All in all, I think this little movie from almost 115 years ago is neither among the master's best nor worst. Worth a watch for huge fans of the biggest filmmaking star of the very early days of cinema, but everybody else can do without it. I thought it was an okay watch at best. Not really recommended.
Fantastical Meal, A (1900) *** 1/2 (out of 4) aka Le Repas fantastiqueVery funny film has a father and his two daughters trying to enjoy a peaceful meal but soon various magic tricks are taking place right before a ghost shows up. This is one of the director's better films as it offers some familiar magic tricks mixed in with some new ones. The highlight of the film is a scene where the father goes to cut the turkey only to have the table grow as tall as the ceiling. We get several gags dealing with chairs disappearing as people are trying to sit down but we also get new gags including a great sequence where the father gets possessed by the ghost and then goes flying around the room. The special effects dealing with the ghost are extremely good and it's shocking that forty-years later they wouldn't even be topped.