Les aventures de Baron de Munchausen (1911)

Director: Georges Méliès

Cast:

Synopsis: After an evening of excessive wining and dining Baron Munchausen must be helped to bed by his servants. Once asleep, he has bizarre and frightening dreams.

By 1911 Georges Melies increasingly seemed to be operating in a void, one in which new cinematic developments and techniques seemed to pass him by unheeded and which would, eventually, contribute to his ultimate failure in the film business.   Les aventures de Baron de Munchausen is a perfect example of just how badly he failed to progress as a filmmaker.   Although its sets and special effects are somewhat more sophisticated than his early efforts, they’re essentially just the same old tricks in fancy new clothes.   Once again a character suffers an ordeal through bad dreams, this time the result of over-imbibing during a fancy dinner.   The character, who is put to bed by his servants, is Baron Munchausen, a popular cinematic figure.   His bed is positioned beneath a large, ornate mirror which serves as the stage for a succession of increasingly bizarre dreams.   Unfortunately, there is no narrative thread whatsoever, just a repetitive succession of fantastic images that go nowhere, and the film is shot in exactly the same way that Melies filmed his earlier movies – as if the camera is a member of the audience, trapped in a seat directly in front of the stage.

(Reviewed 8th April 2015)