Often, the name of Segundo de Chomón (1871-1929) is associated with that of Georges Méliès (1861-1938). If he is less known than his illustrious rival, the Spanish filmmaker has nonetheless little to envy in him in terms of creativity and inventiveness when it comes to special effects. As proof, this Rêve des marmitons (Scullions' Dream) which shows us that as early as 1908, the cinema, no more than ten years old, already employed stop-motion, by means of a frame-by-frame shooting process.

In 1905 Segundo de Chomón was hired by Pathé Frères, and put in charge of special-effects films. His French wife, Julienne Mathieu (1874-?), who worked for Méliès, introduced him to the colouring of films. In Barcelona, in the very first years of the new century, the couple founded their own colouring studio. During this period, Chomón, who notably shot documentary news footage for Pathé, also created his very first special effects. He went to Paris in 1905, and used a camera which he had modified, enabling him to shoot forwards, backwards and frame by frame, by means of a crank marked with various positions.

The Spanish filmmaker was therefore both screenwriter, director, cinematography and special-effects creator of the Rêve des marmitons (Scullions' Dream). The film was released by Pathé in January 1908. It was during this particularly prolific year that Segundo de Chomón made his best special-effects films, among the some 150 he made for Pathé between 1905 and 1909.

Playing on the theme of the dismemberment - as in How to Stop a Motor Car by Cecil Hepworth (1902) - this film curiously foreshadowed the surrealist masterpiece by Luis Buñuel (1900-1983), Un chien andalou (1928), in the opening of which a dismembered hand plays, although motionless, a significant role.

The original music for this film was composed in 2011 by Vincent Wavelet in the context of the partnership with the CNSMDP (Paris Conservatory of Dance and Music).