CitizenCaine In The One-Man Band, Georges Melies uses multiple exposure photography to show himself as several band members playing different instruments in unison. Melies also continues to use jump-cut editing to make objects appear and disappear (the chairs in this case) and advance the action. The work it must have taken Melies to synchronize the footage must have been extraordinary. Just as Melies makes the likenesses of himself as band members appear, he makes them disappear also echoing the many other previous films he's done with creating a scenario and then dismantling it in the context of a sole creator/creative force. *** of 4 stars.

wes-connors French magician and filmmaker Georges Melies has seven chairs lined up across your movie screen. He appears dressed as a musician and takes a seat, then a super-imposed Mr. Melies rises, with cymbals, from the first sitting Melies and sits in the second seat. From the second seat, a drumming Melies moves on to the next seat. This goes on until all seven seats are filled with different members of an instrumental orchestra. Melies plays each part. They perform enthusiastically for the audience and meld back into the original Melies. He is a one man band!****** L'homme orchestre (1900) Georges Melies ~ Georges Melies

Red-Barracuda In this innovative short Georges Méliès - the man who invented cinematic special effects - plays an entire band. The specific technology that Méliès showcases here is multiple exposures. This technique was used to populate a single scene with a number of separate images, filmed independently. In this case Méliès appears as seven different characters, all making up the little orchestra. It's a typically ambitious idea from the master showman of early cinema. And like his other experiments, it's done very well. It really is remarkable how successfully Méliès produced his crazy ideas at this extremely early stage in the development of the medium. Not only is it technically expert but Méliès also acts out seven characters in one simultaneous scene and his timing is very precise. This film was one of many from the director's first phase where his movies were essentially showcases for his visual trickery and cinematic sleight of hand. He would soon go on to expand his repertoire with story-telling, such as the seminal A Trip to the Moon. But these earlier experiments are still a great way of seeing the development of a true pioneer.

Michael_Elliott One-Man Band, The (1900) *** (out of 4) aka L'Homme orchestre This here is one of director Melies best known and loved films. Melies plays a band leader and we see his spirits or doubles, come to life and make for an entire band. Buster Keaton would somewhat redo this film two decades later in The Play House and in my opinion it can't hold a candle to this film. The special effects hold up quite well and the way the spirits come to be is nicely done. Melies was certainly a genius and this is one of the highlights of his career.