Le tunnel sous La Manche ou Le cauchemar franco-anglais

Tunneling the Channel (1907)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Tunnel sous la Manche ou le cauchemar anglo-français

This fourteen-minute film is the perfect example of the saying "The Magic of Melies." The French president and the English king have a meeting and then that night they both dream about building a tunnel to connect their beloved homes. We then see how the tunnel would be built and the final outcome of such an adventure. TUNNELING THE CHANNEL is a perfect film to show someone unfamiliar with what the French master could do because it's just so entertaining and the level of imagination going on will keep a smile on your face from start to finish. I think some of the greatest moments happen when we see the tunnel once it's finished and we get to see how it's going to be used. I really enjoyed the little touches that Melies brought to the picture including the fish in the water above the tunnel. I also really liked the special effects and especially the one at the very end, which I won't mention so that I don't give the surprise away. The film starts off in B&W but turns over to the hand tint and it's quite beautiful and very effective.

"Tunneling the English Channel" is a slightly amusing fantasy-adventure film from Georges Méliès. In it, England's King Edward VII and France's President Armand Fallières share a dream (literally) of creating a tunnel through the English Channel, or, as the French call it, "La Manche". Although the tunnel wouldn't become a reality until nearer the end of the 20th Century, this wasn't really science fiction back in 1907, as there had been proposals and plans for it for some time even by then, but which were largely held up for political and national security concerns. Nevertheless, it served Méliès well for lampooning. One scene has the two leaders in giant form on their respective sides of the waters stretching their arms like rubber in an attempt to shake hands. There's also a split-screen view of the politicians' adjoining rooms that's actually a double-chamber set, a good crosscut of two cutaway scenes of both sides making their way to completing the undersea connection, plenty of flag waving and some mild knockabout humor.

(Note: The print is in bad shape for the first half of the film--being dark and contrasty-but the second half is of decent quality and is hand colored.)

American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum named 1907's "Tunneling The English Channel" as one of his 100 favorite films of all-time. The Georges Melies movie depicts building a tunnel linking England and France, a subject highly talked about during the early 1900's. Melies filmed this on his Paris studio stage. England's King Edward and French President Fallieres begin the film by dreaming about the project. (The actor playing the king was a wash-house attendant who resembled the king.) The first half of the movie is blurry, but the second half is color-painted frame-by-frame by hand and is clear

King Edward VII of Great Britain and President Fallières of France (or reasonable facsimiles), over wine and cigars, agree that a tunnel need be dug under the channel to connect the two countries. In a surreal symbolic moment two men lengthen their arms extravagantly to shake hands over a miniature channel, dotted with ships and populated with fish. The film then cuts to the tunneling from both sides (supervised by the well-lubricated leaders), with dynamite finishing the job. As in the modern Chunnel, the submarine crossing is made by train until, catastrophically, two trains meet in the middle and the resulting explosion collapses the roof and floods the tunnel. As in other Méliès' films, the fantastic events turn out to be dreams. The whimsical sets are great, especially the French drilling machine, and the special effects include explosions, substitution splices, superimpositions and dissolves. There are lots of amusing touches (note the patriotically coloured fish swimming above the tunnel completion party). There are no intertitles and at the time of release, a 'boniment' describing the event would be read during the film. One of Méliès' more amusing works of cinéma fantastique.