The Indian Sorcerer (1908) User Reviews

Same old, same old...

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 15 August 2010]

Although Georges Melies' output was still as prolific as it had ever been his popularity was already beginning to wane by 1908, and this film is a fairly good example of why. It could easily have been made by Melies five years earlier, which is a demonstration of just how he failed to adapt to the changing tastes of film-goers as their demands grew more sophisticated.

The movie is essentially a couple of conjuring tricks on film. The tricks can't really be described as magic because it's clear they rely on stop-motion photography rather than the illusory skills of the magician - who happens to be Melies. He jumps out of a portrait then performs a couple of overlong tricks in which he produces chickens and children from a giant egg, much to the astonishment of his assistant - who is clearly the most easily entertained member of the audience.

Back to His Old Tricks

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 20 November 2017]

Melies returns to his magic roots for this one. After some poor slapstick ventures, he is an Indian magician who jumps out of a painting. He proceeds to do a whole series of tricks, all involving eggs. First the normal sized ones and then ones that are transformed into large ones. He creates a scale and weighs the egg and soon the egg hatches different things, from chickens to humans. It's all done with the same sort of precision he did for most of his early films. The problem. It really is nothing new and the audiences must seen this problem.

Same Old Song and Dance

[Michael_Elliott · 20 August 2012]

An Indian Sorcerer (1908)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Fakir de Singapour

Georges Melies returns to his roots of trick films with this one here clocking in just under five-minutes. A sorcerer turns a small egg into a bigger one and keeps repeating this trick until the egg is large enough to do other things including delivering children. AN Indian SORCERER is mildly entertaining but at the same time there's no getting around the fact that it's pretty much the same old song and dance that we had seen for nearly ten years. Melies seems to be in fine shape as he runs around the stage doing his tricks but there's just something missing when you watch it. I think the best of the director's work features a fantasy and magic element, which is simply not here. Yes, the tricks are entertaining and the editing is so much better than in previous films but that magic is still gone.