One of Georges Méliès’ more modest efforts from 1902, a year which saw him stun the movie-going world with his epic La voyage do la lune, L’homme mouche (The Human Fly) sees the French wizard, dressed as a Russian Cossack — in fact he looks not unlike Rasputin, although this resemblance must surely be coincidental as the mad monk had not yet achieved notoriety in 1902 — who uses his moves to impress six young ladies at a party. Méliès has a trick up his sleeve which is guaranteed to blow away any competition for the ladies’ attention: the ability to scale the walls like a fly. To prove that his first attempt wasn’t a lucky fluke, he actually performs the trick a few times. To be honest, it gets a little dull by the third performance, but it’s a neat trick. The cuts are visible, but not excessively so, and the film benefits from being hand-tinted. Melies displays his usual boundless energy in a minor but enjoyable entry.

(Reviewed 15th September 2014)