The Mermaid (1904)

Original title

La Sirène

Directed by

Georges Méliès

Genre

fantasy film, silent film

Country

France

Runtime

4 min

Rating

5.8 of 10 from 67 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A gentleman encounters a mermaid in a fantastical seaside setting. The mermaid appears, transforms, and interacts with the man through a series of magical and theatrical illusions.

whimsicaldreamlikeplayfultheatricalinventivesurreallightheartedfantastical

What happens

The Mermaid (French: La Sirène) is a 1904 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 593–595 in its catalogues. Méliès himself plays the gentleman in the film. The special effects include stage machinery, pyrotechnics, substitution splices, multiple exposures, dissolves, and what reads as a traveling shot (though in fact it is the action wheeling toward the camera, not the reverse). Film critic William B. Parrill suspects this film's visuals influenced Vasili Goncharov's The Water Nymph (1910). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• The Wonderful Rose-Tree (1904)
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