An inventor demonstrates a device that can project images of people onto a screen, where they seem to come alive. Unfortunately, the screen representations are not always flattering... Figuring out what Georges Méliès was trying to say with this odd short silent film is challenging. The initial projections are 'true' representations of the subjects but the projection of the dignified older woman shows her as the head of a toothless hag and the image of her consort is some kind of grimacing monkey-like creature. Whether these transformations are just for silly laughs, whether Méliès was mocking the upper-class pretentions, or whether the images are supposed to embody the person's true nature (ala Dorian Gray) is unclear. As the older woman's dress suddenly and inexplicitly disappears later in the film, I lean to the slapstick comedy explanation but more complex theories about class and gender stereotypes have been put forward. Typical for a Méliès fantasy, the characters kinetically mime and exaggerate every movement as they set up the various 'money shots' and the special effects include the usual double exposures and substitution-splices (by 1908, these basic camera tricks were getting routine). The most noteworthy aspect of the film is the prediction of a device that can transmit images wirelessly (although the earliest experimental transmissions of images were contemporaneous) but the images changing or 'coming to life' was pure fantasy.
6 Reviews
It Gets At Their Souls
Hitchcoc20 November 2017
Melies is poking fun at the madness of science. In the process, his scientist has invented a type off camera that can send images through the air. An older couple show up to have their pictures taken. At first they get a demonstration of the new technology. Everything goes quite well. But when their turn comes, the pictures that arrive are venomous, showing the worst qualities of the people. This has a bit of a "Twilight Zone" sense to it. It is a bit boring but holds its own for quite a while. The machine is quite amazing.
Has A Couple Of Good Moments
Snow Leopard3 December 2002
While it's a little less efficient than the best Méliès features, "Long Distance Wireless Photography" does have a couple of good moments in it. The fanciful story starts with a special camera that produces images which bring out hidden aspects or characteristics of its subjects. It takes a little while to set everything up before it really gets going, but along the way there are the trademark Méliès visual details and special effects. Except for a couple of high points, it's only mildly interesting by his standards, but of course that's not too bad by most other standards of the era.
At first a bit dull, then it really hits its stride towards the end
planktonrules7 September 2006
This short silent film is part of the DVD collection entitled "The Magic of Méliès" and is the fourth volume of THE MOVIES BEGIN series from Kino Video. Unlike copies of Méliès' films that are posted on the internet, the prints for these short films are exceptionally crisp and clean and feature wonderful musical scores. Oddly, though, is that aside from a few films such as THE BLACK IMP and THE IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGE, most of the shorts chosen for this DVD are actually not among the best of Méliès' films--having a strong tendency to show is "stagy" material as opposed to the films that have elaborate sets and plots. In particular, my favorites such as BARBE-BLEUE and LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE (his most famous film) are not on this DVD.
When the movie begins, the film seems a tad ordinary. However, as it progresses, the camera tricks become more and more impressive. And, to top off an already good film, the ending is very funny slapstick--with electrocutions and pratfalls galore. While not the director's best, this is a very good and about average film for Méliès.
When the movie begins, the film seems a tad ordinary. However, as it progresses, the camera tricks become more and more impressive. And, to top off an already good film, the ending is very funny slapstick--with electrocutions and pratfalls galore. While not the director's best, this is a very good and about average film for Méliès.
Méliès Invents TV
Cineanalyst17 August 2013
Georges Méliès's was often at his best when lampooning contemporary scientific inventions, ideas and fiction--things that by today, if not by then, have become reality. He took man to the Moon ("A Trip to the Moon", 1902), to the North Pole via a hodgepodge helicopter plane ("The Conquest of the Pole", 1912), undersea in a submarine ("Under the Seas", 1907), let them drive those newfangled automobiles ("An Adventurous Automobile Trip", 1905), terrorized them with Zeppelins ("The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship", 1907), took them just about everywhere in "The Impossible Voyage" (1904) and built a railroad tunnel through the English Channel ("Tunnelling the English Channel", 1907). In "Long Distance Wireless Photography" (which is a misleading translated title), Méliès demonstrated an intentionally-laughable invention for transmitting moving images to a screen--a kind of television.
This is an otherwise routine single shot-scene trick film for Méliès, which can be generally amusing by itself, but I find the lampooning of invention especially interesting here. Reportedly, there were already ideas around this time for television-like contraptions. Allan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, for one, described a television method in the scientific journal "Nature" the same year that Méliès made this film. But, of course, no one had conjured quite as fantastical a version as the cinema magician did here.
In the film, some supposed electric machinery is shown off before a photograph or painting of three women is used to produce moving pictures of those women on a screen. Next, a woman is photographed and her noticeably unsynchronized, superimposed self appears "live" on the black flat. Finally, "live" head close-ups of the elderly guests are projected. A knockabout finale is completed after the man's face is transmitted as some kind of grotesque monkey-looking clown. Thusly, this remote electromechanical TV system doesn't merely transmit and broadcast moving pictures, it does so with an image projector and has the ability to both create movement from still images and to mischievously transform and distort images.
Méliès had previously made similar self-referential films "The Mysterious Portrait" (Le portrait mystérieux) (1899) and "The Magic Lantern" (La lanterne magique) (1903), which were also described in terms of media for still images, but the films obviously contained moving images within the outer moving images of the film proper. Whereas those films-within-films looked at the predecessors of motion pictures--photography and the magic lantern--this one looked to the future of movies: television. Its prank-to-punitive retribution comedy structure also resembles that of "The Countryman and the Cinematograph" (1901), among other early films to follow this popular formula. Yet, unlike these earlier films, this one doesn't only reveal cinema's great trick to be reproducing or mirroring life; the greatest trick is the ability to distort reality and invent something new.
This is an otherwise routine single shot-scene trick film for Méliès, which can be generally amusing by itself, but I find the lampooning of invention especially interesting here. Reportedly, there were already ideas around this time for television-like contraptions. Allan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, for one, described a television method in the scientific journal "Nature" the same year that Méliès made this film. But, of course, no one had conjured quite as fantastical a version as the cinema magician did here.
In the film, some supposed electric machinery is shown off before a photograph or painting of three women is used to produce moving pictures of those women on a screen. Next, a woman is photographed and her noticeably unsynchronized, superimposed self appears "live" on the black flat. Finally, "live" head close-ups of the elderly guests are projected. A knockabout finale is completed after the man's face is transmitted as some kind of grotesque monkey-looking clown. Thusly, this remote electromechanical TV system doesn't merely transmit and broadcast moving pictures, it does so with an image projector and has the ability to both create movement from still images and to mischievously transform and distort images.
Méliès had previously made similar self-referential films "The Mysterious Portrait" (Le portrait mystérieux) (1899) and "The Magic Lantern" (La lanterne magique) (1903), which were also described in terms of media for still images, but the films obviously contained moving images within the outer moving images of the film proper. Whereas those films-within-films looked at the predecessors of motion pictures--photography and the magic lantern--this one looked to the future of movies: television. Its prank-to-punitive retribution comedy structure also resembles that of "The Countryman and the Cinematograph" (1901), among other early films to follow this popular formula. Yet, unlike these earlier films, this one doesn't only reveal cinema's great trick to be reproducing or mirroring life; the greatest trick is the ability to distort reality and invent something new.
Another Winner from Melies
Michael_Elliott18 August 2012
Long Distance Wireless Photography (1908)
*** (out of 4)
aka Photographie électrique à distance
Nice film from Georges Melies has a man creating a machine that can show people for how they really are. Various people sit down (or stand) by a machine and then their real image is projected on the screen. At just under 6-minutes this here is a pretty good short from the French filmmaker as he manages to get a couple nice laughs from the "real" sides that get shown on the screen. My personal favorite happened towards the end with the monkey looking creature. The film does start off a tad bit slow because Melies takes his time leading up to the machine in motion but once this happens it really picks up and delivers. I think some of the magic that the director is best known for is missing here but it's still worth watching.
*** (out of 4)
aka Photographie électrique à distance
Nice film from Georges Melies has a man creating a machine that can show people for how they really are. Various people sit down (or stand) by a machine and then their real image is projected on the screen. At just under 6-minutes this here is a pretty good short from the French filmmaker as he manages to get a couple nice laughs from the "real" sides that get shown on the screen. My personal favorite happened towards the end with the monkey looking creature. The film does start off a tad bit slow because Melies takes his time leading up to the machine in motion but once this happens it really picks up and delivers. I think some of the magic that the director is best known for is missing here but it's still worth watching.
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