Another film in which the author’s energy and animation and imagination are positively inspiring. The Melomaniac is a real variation of or an advance on Méliès’ customary head trick. He’s notes on a musical staff! And the notes sound out God save the king! And the female chorus arrays itself beneath the staff and holds solfeggio signs up for the audience! And then Méliès conducts from down below, while his heads sing up above! This is symbol and self simultaneously. This is his desire to share, to give of himself, to provide pleasure. These are the ends he’ll go to in order to do so.
I love the transformation from clown get up and a clown’s hyperbolic gesture to just his plain, handsomely bald self.