THE DWARF AND THE GIANT (1901)
aka Nain et geant
Article 4091 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-27-2012
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies and Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A magician changes himself into two people, one who grows to a giant, and the other who shrinks to a dwarf.

A number of Melies’s early shorts seem to me to be experiments to see what special effects he could pull off. This seems to be one of them. There’s no real story at all; it just illustrates the trick of making one person grow while another person shrinks, and though they interact with each other, there’s no point beyond that. In its own way, it’s an impressive effect for the time, as the growing and shrinking happen at the same time. It’s a minor Melies film, but he does appear to be having fun.