An early film directed by and starring Georges Melies himself (positioned in the center of the card players), the film is nothing more than an exercise in composition, framing, and posing for the camera. Many early films like this, now lost to time, depicted the same innocuous scenarios of people interacting in common, routine scenarios, and the entertainment was more or less the fact that such a scene with interacting people in it could be filmed and watched after the fact. There are no special directorial touches in the film, which Melies would later be noted for, but the simple setting of three chaps playing cards, drinking, and having a barmaid drop by is an echo from a long ago era. ** of 4 stars.
Review of Card Party
