Leofwine_draca 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.

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.

Snow Leopard Georges Méliès had such a marvelous imagination that you should never be surprised with anything that he comes up with, but even when you've seen dozens of his features, there's still a good chance that the next one you see could have something new. In this short feature, he combines visual tricks with copies of his own head, something he had already done in a number of previous comedies, with an amusing and creative musical setting.Méliès plays the leader of a marching band who shows them their music on a giant staff, using the heads and various other implements to write the music. It's funny, and the special effects are interesting and work quite well, as usual. (A previous reviewer has given a particularly apt description of the enjoyable trick with the heads.) It's a resourceful way to use a musical setting without having the benefit of the actual music or of any other sound, and it's also enjoyable to watch.

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.