Truly Dreadful Film

Thanks for the memories!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Another short film about a couple men playing cards. It's very very similar to "Partie d'écarté", only that the fourth person herein is not a servant, but most likely the wife to one of the players. The fact that's she's really chubby probably confirms my thought that this is certainly a look into the free time of upper-class people. No lack of food here. Just like the other, there's smoking and drinking involved and the game takes place outdoors. However, another difference is the ending. While the previously mentioned short film from the same year has everybody clinking glasses at the end, this one finishes with one man reading something funny in the newspaper and telling the other two, who break into laughter immediately. Hmmm i wonder what was so funny. I guess we'll never know. It's an okay silent short film, neither among Méliès best nor worst.

This is the film debut of master cinema magician Georges Melies featuring three men having a game of cards and because of the name Melies perhaps one might have expected more because there is no trick photography . It's just a mundane static shot of three men playing cards . In fact even the title is misleading because watching it you're more aware that they're ordering wine from a waitress who keeps appearing and disappearing in to frame and two of the men constantly puffing away on ciggies . That said being the film debut of Melies it's place in important film history is assured and we should be thankful that unlike so many of the director's earlier works it still exists and is easily accessible on the internet in 2013

An early film directed by and starring Georges Melies himself (positioned in the center of the card players), the film is nothing more than an exercise in composition, framing, and posing for the camera. Many early films like this, now lost to time, depicted the same innocuous scenarios of people interacting in common, routine scenarios, and the entertainment was more or less the fact that such a scene with interacting people in it could be filmed and watched after the fact. There are no special directorial touches in the film, which Melies would later be noted for, but the simple setting of three chaps playing cards, drinking, and having a barmaid drop by is an echo from a long ago era. ** of 4 stars.

Playing Cards (1896) ** 1/2 (out of 4)aka Une Partie de cartes This here was the first film ever directed by Georges Melies and it runs just over a minute and the title pretty much tells you all you need to know when it comes to the story. Three men sit around playing cards and ordering drinks. The magic that Melies brought to the screen can't be spotted here as this short is pretty much like countless others of the era as it just shows you brief things being done and in this case it's card playing. The camera stays put the entire film as the action takes place in front of it. This certainly isn't classic Melies but everyone had to start somewhere.