The Wonderful Living Fan

1904 French film

1904 (1904)

CountryFranceLanguageSilent

The Wonderful Living Fan (French: Le Merveilleux Éventail vivant) is a 1904 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 581–584 in its catalogues.^[1]

Production

The concept for the living fan is derived from a scene in The Sun Prince, a stage spectacle produced in 1899 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.^[2] Méliès plays the fan maker in the film, which works its tricks using stage machinery, substitution splices, and dissolves.^[3] The film's costuming and decor sets the trick in the era of Louis XV.^[2]

Survival and reception

Prints of the film survive in several archives, including a hand-colored print at the Cinémathèque Française.^[2] A black-and-white print restored by the film preservationist David Shepard was released on home video in 2008.^[4]

In a book on Méliès, film historian John Frazer cited The Wonderful Living Fan as "characteristic of Méliès's best fantasy," comparing the arrangement of women on the fan to "a tableau in a Florenz Ziegfeld musical."^[2]

References

^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 347, ISBN 9782732437323
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., p. 142, ISBN 0816183686
^ Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, p. 195, ISBN 2903053073
^ Méliès, Georges (2008), Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 1893967352

External links

The Wonderful Living Fan at IMDb

Georges Méliès

Actualities

Actualities (1896–1900)
Reconstructed actualities (1897–1902)

Films

1896	Playing Cards Conjuring Watering the Flowers The Rag-Picker Post No Bills The Rescue on the River A Terrible Night Arrival of a Train (Joinville Station) A Lightning Sketch Conjurer Making Ten Hats in Sixty Seconds A Serpentine Dance Miss de Vère (English Jig) The Vanishing Lady The Haunted Castle Tom Old Boot
1897	A Nightmare Comedian Paulus Singing A Funny Mahometan An Hallucinated Alchemist The Haunted Castle On the Roofs D. Devant, Conjurer The School for Sons-in-law The Last Cartridges The Surrender of Tournavos Sea Fighting in Greece Gugusse and the Automaton Between Calais and Dover The Laboratory of Mephistopheles The Barber and the Farmer The Bewitched Inn A Private Dinner After the Ball A Hypnotist at Work Dancing in a Harem
1898	A Novice at X-Rays Divers at Work on the Wreck of the "Maine" The Magician The Famous Box Trick Pygmalion and Galatea Adventures of William Tell The Astronomer's Dream The Cave of the Demons The Four Troublesome Heads The Temptation of Saint Anthony
1899	A Dinner Under Difficulties Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb The Bridegroom's Dilemma An Up-to-Date Conjuror The Devil in a Convent The Pillar of Fire The Clown and Automobile A Mysterious Portrait Christ Walking on the Water Summoning the Spirits The Dreyfus Affair The Human Pyramid Cinderella The Snow Man The Mysterious Knight
1900	Addition and Subtraction The Miracles of the Brahmin The Cook's Revenge The Misfortunes of an Explorer Paris Exposition, 1900 The One-Man Band Joan of Arc The Rajah's Dream The Two Blind Men The Artist and the Mannikin Thanking the Audience The Christmas Dream Crying and Laughing Coppelia, the Animated Doll Fat and Lean Wrestling Match A Fantastical Meal Going to Bed Under Difficulties The Doctor and the Monkey What Is Home Without the Boarder China Versus Allied Powers The Brahmin and the Butterfly The Triple-Headed Lady Dislocation Extraordinary Red Riding Hood
1901	The Magician's Cavern Excelsior! The Sacred Fountain Blue Beard The Man with the Rubber Head
1902	The Eruption of Mount Pelee The Catastrophe of the Balloon "Le Pax" A Trip to the Moon The Shadow-Girl The Coronation of Edward VII The Treasures of Satan The Human Fly Up-to-Date Surgery Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants Robinson Crusoe The Marvellous Wreath
1903	Misfortune Never Comes Alone The Infernal Cake Walk The Mysterious Box The Queen's Musketeers The Enchanted Well The Inn Where No Man Rests The Drawing Lesson The Mystical Flame The Witch's Revenge The Oracle of Delphi A Spiritualistic Photographer The Melomaniac The Monster The Kingdom of the Fairies The Infernal Cauldron The Apparition Jupiter's Thunderbolts Ten Ladies in One Umbrella Jack Jaggs and Dum Dum Bob Kick, the Mischievous Kid Extraordinary Illusions Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician Jack and Jim The Magic Lantern The Ballet-Master's Dream The Damnation of Faust The Terrible Turkish Executioner A Moonlight Serenade
1904	Tit for Tat A Wager Between Two Magicians, or Jealous of Myself Every Man His Own Cigar Lighter The Bewitched Trunk The Fugitive Apparitions The Untamable Whiskers The Clockmaker's Dream The Imperceptible Transmutations A Miracle Under the Inquisition Faust and Marguerite Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer The Wonderful Living Fan The Cook in Trouble The Mermaid The Providence of the Waves The Barber of Seville The Wonderful Rose-Tree The Impossible Voyage The Firefall The Christmas Angel
1905	The Living Playing Cards The Black Imp The Crystal Casket The Lilliputian Minuet A Mesmerian Experiment The Venetian Looking-Glass The Palace of the Arabian Nights The Tower of London The Enchanted Sedan Chair An Adventurous Automobile Trip The Mysterious Island Unexpected Fireworks Rip's Dream The Scheming Gambler's Paradise The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship
1906	A Mix-up in the Gallery The Chimney Sweep The Tramp and the Mattress Makers The Hilarious Posters A Desperate Crime Punch and Judy A Roadside Inn Soap Bubbles The Merry Frolics of Satan A Seaside Flirtation The Mysterious Retort The Witch Robert Macaire and Bertrand
1907	Rogues' Tricks Under the Seas How Bridget's Lover Escaped Tunnelling the English Channel The Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon Hamlet Shakespeare Writing "Julius Caesar" Sightseeing Through Whisky Good Glue Sticks Satan in Prison Delirium in a Studio The Knight of Black Art The Good Luck of a "Souse"
1908	Humanity Through the Ages The Genii of Fire Why That Actor Was Late The Dream of an Opium Fiend Long Distance Wireless Photography The Prophetess of Thebes In the Barber Shop A Fake Diamond Swindler The New Lord of the Village The Miser Sideshow Wrestlers The Broken Violin A Love Tragedy in Spain Mishaps of the New York–Paris Race The Woes of Roller Skaters Love and Molasses The Mischances of a Photographer The Indian Sorcerer A Tricky Painter's Fate French Cops Learning English Fun With the Bridal Party Not Guilty Buncoed Stage Johnnie A Grandmother's Story The Helping Hand The Old Footlight Favorite Honeymoon in a Balloon The Duke's Good Joke Incident from Don Quixote The Fairy Dragonfly Moitié de polka Fortune Favors the Brave Hypnotist's Revenge Pharmaceutical Hallucinations The Good Shepherdess and the Evil Princess The Living Doll Seein' Things The Frozen Policeman Tribulation or the Misfortunes of a Cobbler
1909	The Doctor's Secret The Diabolic Tenant Whimsical Illusions King of the Mediums The Spider and the Butterfly
1911	Baron Munchausen's Dream The Diabolical Church Window
1912	The Conquest of the Pole Cinderella or the Glass Slipper The Knight of the Snows The Voyage of the Bourrichon Family