Fantastic!

Disturbing yet enthralling

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

More head play from Georges Melies, the man widely considered to be the master of cinema. This time, the early film director has a ball with a music-inspired sketch that employs greater variation and complexity to the likes of his head-swapping shorts from five years before. There's a larger cast, plenty of singing musical heads and decapitation and the auteur's use of surreal humour that makes it so unique. The alternate title is THE MUSIC LOVER and the story sees a music teacher becoming increasingly frustrated with his female students, to which end he decides to remove his head and utilise it in a unique musical display. Great stuff indeed.

Le mélomane is another of Georges Méliès trick films. In it he plays a musical instructor who teaches a group of female musicians in his own eccentric manner. In this case by using several Méliès heads to illustrate the notes. It's typically insane stuff from the master of innovation.It recalls some of the ideas he invented in previous films. It's almost like a collision of L'homme orchestre and Un homme de têtes. It has the musical theme of the former and the multiple Méliès heads of the latter. So it doesn't really bring anything especially new to the table but it is well crafted nevertheless. Perhaps the oddest aspect about this production is that it appears to be a silent movie with a musical theme. Not exactly the most obvious combination it has to be said. The result is another charming oddity from this cinematic pioneer.

This is one of Melies' most unusual shorts in which he portrays a music teacher who is trying to teach his students some harmony by having various heads of his representing notes on a large series of lines above him. I've always wondered how those various heads keep popping up from his body like that. In the documentary film, The Magic of Melies, I found out Georges stops film in camera, covers his head with a black sheet to match the background, then starts film again. Of course, any technical problems are fixed in editing. The way short ends with all those musical head-notes flying around is one of the most awesome sights I've seen in silent movies. By all means, seek The Music Lover out!

'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.