A Dinner Under Difficulties

1899 French film
  • 1899 (1899)
CountryFranceLanguageSilent

A Dinner Under Difficulties (French: Salle à manger fantastique) is an 1899 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 171 in its catalogues.[1] The film is a simple sketch in which a man accidentally knocks over his dining table, sending his meal to the floor. The problem is solved when, by magic, the table and its contents fly in backward motion back into place.[2]

The film features Méliès's first known use of reverse motion,[3] a special effect probably created by cranking the camera backward.[2] Prints of A Dinner Under Difficulties survive at the British Film Institute and the George Eastman Museum.[2]

References

  1. ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 339, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. ^ a b c Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., pp. 72–73, ISBN 0816183686
  3. ^ Rosen, Miriam (1987), "Méliès, Georges", in Wakeman, John (ed.), World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, pp. 747–65 (here 752), ISBN 0-8242-0757-2

External links

  • A Dinner Under Difficulties at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • v
  • t
  • e
Actualities
Films
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1911
1912
Related