The Four Troublesome Heads

Un homme de têtes
Directed by Georges Méliès
Written by Georges Méliès
Starring Georges Méliès
Release dates
  • 1898 (1898)
Running time
 20 meters/65 feet[1]
Country France
Language Silent

The Four Troublesome Heads (French: Un homme de têtes) is an 1898 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's company Star Film and is numbered 167 in its catalogues.[1] An illegal print of the film, copied without authorization from Méliès, was released in America in 1903 by Siegmund Lubin under the title Four Heads Are Better Than One.[2]

The film features one of the first known uses of multiple exposure of objects on a black background on film, a special effect Méliès went on to use prolifically.[3]

Summary

Georges Méliès enters the frame and stands between two tables. He removes his own head and puts it on one of the tables, where it starts talking and looking around. Méliès repeats the action twice, with a new head appearing on his shoulders each time, until four identical Méliès heads are presented at once. Méliès then plays a banjo, and all four heads sing along.

References

  1. 1 2 Hammond, Paul (1974). Marvellous Méliès. London: Gordon Fraser. p. 138. ISBN 0900406380.
  2. ↑ Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., p. 71, ISBN 0816183686
  3. ↑ Frazer, p. 70.


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