Whimsical Illusions (1909) User Reviews

In Living Color

[boblipton · 7/10 · 17 March 2008]

My first reaction is that this is nothing spectacular for Melies: ordinary stage conjuring, done with plenty of verve and pleasure in his presentation, and just enough under-cranking to add special vivacity to his presentation. However, the print that is preserved is beautifully hand-tinted and still, after ninety years, preserves lot of color. So it's good to look at.

But what a thing to do to Santa Claus!

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

Must Have Been an Ass-pidistra

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 23 October 2011]

This is another of those Georges Melies films that amounts to little more than a presentation of a magic act enhanced with trick photography and hand-painted colour.

The film possesses Melies' characteristic energy and exuberance, but it's really no different from what he was producing five years earlier - simply a succession of stage tricks that no longer manage to astound its audience. It's for this reason that Melies' Star Films production company would go into bankruptcy in the next couple of years.

The highlights are the beating to death of Santa Claus and a bizarre moment in which Melies appears to produce a potted plant from his footman's derrière...

Fun stuff

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 6 August 2023]

A magic show performed by Méliès himself which is made truly magical by his use of stop cuts and substitutions. Pretty cool that he figured out this early form of special effect, and what it could be used for. Even for such a simple five minute short, there is such irreverence here, as he pulls a large potted plant out of his assistant's backside for goodness sake. He also yanks the ornate costume off an Egyptian(?) man and presto! A skeleton appears and waves his arms and legs about. He puts scholarly robes around a sculpted bust and voila! A man resembling Santa begins walking about, and then Méliès proceeds to dismember him(!) with a giant mallet. Man, that was rather dark! I loved it. Less successful (and I have to believe this was true even at the time) was the bat being floated about by a wire visible against the dark background. Fun stuff though.

Imaginative magic

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 19 October 2021]

My first impression of this was that the film was colorized in the same manner as a number of the old black and white classics have been. Thanks to other reviewers, I now know that individual frames were hand colored to produce the vivid images rendered in mostly a vibrant pastel palette. The affect is pleasing on the eyes, although at the same time doesn't seem quite natural. As far as the magician goes, it's director Georges Méliès who accomplishes the visual sleight of hand, though they appear to be more like camera tricks using a stop motion method to make things appear and disappear. I don't know what would have prompted him to put the hurt on Santa Claus in a scene that's not too subtly violent. In any event, this was my first look at any kind of work by Méliès, who must have had a curiously imaginative mind to produce these early film works. As I write this, you can catch this and other Méliès film shorts on HBO Max under their TCM hub.

A Real Comback

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 21 November 2017]

Melies reprises the magic show motif. He basically dresses the scene and then uses every prop he can imagine and a truly delightful box to demonstrate amazing visual tricks. Of course, everything is stop action but with the color and the quickness, the things we've seen before are fresher. There has a been a quality uplift. Melies does a nice job as the magician.

Among the best by Méliès--even though he killed Santa!!

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 20 September 2011]

This film is currently on the website for Flicker Alley--a freebie for the fans. The company has already released two sets of films from the great French director, Georges Méliès. They are wonderful films and I highly recommend you give them a viewing.

Méliès made many shorts where he is a magician doing a variety of magic tricks--though the magic is really just turning the camera on and off to make things seem to appear, disappear or change before your eyes. The reason he did this so often in his films is that he was originally a stage magician--and brought his training into his films. I have probably seen 10-20 such films of his so far, though I must say this is the best of them. Why? Well, the color is AMAZING. It appeared as if the production company was using a hand-stenciling technique like the one developed by Pathé Frères--but it looks even better because Flicker Alley restored the full brilliance of the colors. Also, while the 'tricks' sometimes are pretty obviously done using stop-motion, a few of them were still REALLY, REALLY GOOD! However, when Santa (Père Noël) appears, don't let the kids see this--as the magician kills him!! Wow! Talk about being a grinch!! And, despite this, the film has a great sense of humor!