''A Mix-up in the Gallery'' (french: Une chute de cinq étages) is a 1906 French

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

silent

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

Plot

Production

Méliès, acting in a wig and false beard, appears in the film as the photographer. The photography studio set, constructed from a painted backdrop and a wooden flat, closely reproduces the typical architecture of a contemporary photographer's studio; Méliès had drawn upon many elements of this architecture, including the use of a shuttered glass ceiling, in designing his film studio. The small statue of a dancer had previously been used in his 1904 film '' The Ballet-Master's Dream'', while the lamppost prop was recycled from his 1905 film '' Unexpected Fireworks''. The posters on the outside wall, ostensibly campaigning for political candidates, are in fact private jokes: the candidates' names are given as "Claudel", the name of Méliès's set painter; "L. Micho", i.e. Méliès's cameraman Michaut; and "Salmon", the name of an actor at Méliès's studio. Close watching of the scene when the camera falls reveals that the prop camera had difficulty fitting through the window: Méliès, in character as the photographer, had to push it.

Substitution splice The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining th ...

s are also in evidence in the film.

Themes

Méliès's characterization of his role reflects a common depiction of professional photographers as mercenary salespeople. The janitor "becoming" a bull is the comic centerpiece of the film, with the staging of the scene designed to parody a bullfight. The chain-reaction of the fall itself also contributes to the comic nature of the film. With its juxtaposition of artificiality (in the photographer's posed shots) and

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

(in the urban action outside), culminating in the comic bullfight in which the two are inextricably blended, the film may be a satirical comment on the naturalistic

actuality film The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things. Unlike the documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coh ...

s made by the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: *Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, a ...

and other early filmmakers. Méliès himself made many actuality films early in his career—all told, 93 films, or 18% of his output, were filmed as actuality material—but he gradually abandoned the genre in favor of more innovative fiction-based films.

Release and reception

''A Mix-up in the Gallery'' was released by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

and is numbered 789–790 in its catalogues. The film was deposited at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

for American copyright on 21 February 1906. Brian Jacobson, in a study of early film studio architecture, argues that the film displays a "canny awareness of the changing qualities of modern spaces and materials", including a '' mise en abyme'' in which the photography studio stands in for Méliès's own film studio.

References

External links

* 1906 films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films French black-and-white films French comedy short films 1906 comedy films Silent French comedy films 1900s French films {{1900s-France-film-stub