The Mermaid (1904 film)

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.[1]

The Mermaid
A frame from the film
Directed byGeorges Méliès
StarringGeorges Méliès
Production
company
Release date
  • 1904 (1904)
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent
The Mermaid (1904)

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).[2] Film critic William B. Parrill suspects this film's visuals influenced Vasili Goncharov's The Water Nymph (1910).[3]

References

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  1. ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès (in French), Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 348, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. ^ Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France (in French), Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, pp. 199–200, ISBN 2903053073
  3. ^ Parrill, William B. (2011), European Silent Films on Video: A Critical Guide, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, p. 475, ISBN 9780786464371
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