Les Bulles de savon vivantes - 1906
ABOUT THE FILM : Les Bulles de savon vivantes
Det Danske FilminstitutSoap Bubbles
Year: 1906
A theatre stage, a woman born from a curl of magic smoke, soap bubbles with a human face that successively transform into butterfly-women then into the Three Graces… An illusionist none other than Méliès leads the show, has fun and amuses us right up to the moment he himself rises into the air, in a giant soap bubble.
At the peak of his success Georges Méliès showed this passion for conjuring that led him to the cutting edge of cinema.
Nationality: French
Actor: Georges Méliès
Length: 3' 41"
Genre: trick film
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Producer: Star Film
Composer: Donald Sosin
Original language: French
A BRIEF HISTORY : Les Bulles de savon vivantes
Georges Méliès (1861-1938) had mastered the special effect technique since 1898. He perfected his evolution between 1902 and 1907, a period during which he created genres, the entirety of his tricks and invented his own world. In Les Bulles de savons vivantes (Soap bubbles) Méliès, at the peak of his art, transposed to the screen the magic acts he invented and experimented with as the great heir of the father of modern magic, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, (1805-1871) a fabulous creator of magical automatons.
Before discovering the invention of the Lumière Brothers in 1895, Méliès became fascinated by conjuring during a stay in London where he frequented the Egyptian Hall (1812-1903), a theatre dedicated to the magic of Maskelyne and Cook. He achieved his dream in 1888 and bought the Robert-Houdin Theatre. Along with the concert hall Méliès inherited the appliances and automatons invented by the former master of the house. With Méliès at the helm for twenty years this concert hall was a huge success and became popular in the universe of French magic. All the elements of the arts that fascinated Méliès, image, stage and illusion were brought together there!
Magic was only one step away from cinema taken by Méliès together with Antoine Lumière (1840-1911) who aroused his curiosity: “You who amaze everybody with your tricks, you’re going to see something that could impress even you!” And it was while experimenting with the Lumière Brothers’ latest invention that Méliès first filmed his own magic acts. He very quickly invented a series of techniques: freeze frame, splicing and superimposure allowing a whole variety of special effects possible. He multiplied magical effects through subtle editing taking surrealist montage as a starting point, before there was even a name for it.
In this film Méliès re-used some permanent features from his work including metamorphoses, apparitions, instant or gradual disappearances… Besides the mythical themes, like that of the Three Graces here, he called on recurring pyrotechnical effects to produce the apparition that followed a cloud of smoke for example. A search for the perfect illusion became an end in itself made possible by the coming of cinema.
