User Reviews

Imperceptible Transmutations, The (1904)

*** (out of 4)

aka Les Transmutations imperceptibles

Melies plays a magician who pulls a man out from a magic box only to then turn him into a woman and vice versa. This is a pretty good film and one of the more popular ones from the director. There's really nothing overly special here but the special effects hold up quite well and there's a pleasant charm running throughout. Melies had done this type of film several times before but he makes the tricks here seem fresh and original. This isn't the best example of his work but it is a good starting place for newbies.

Georges Méliès certainly wasn't moving anywhere particularly new or special by the time 1904 hit, the year of this short magic trick film "The Imperceptible Transmutations". Prior to the 1900's, his work in trick films and editing had largely consisted of innovations in the film edit, with acclaimed films such as "The House of the Devil", "A Nightmare" (both 1896), "The Astronomer's Dream" (1898), "The Devil in a Convent" (1899) and numerous others. Superimposition was the next great discovery in the filmmaker's career, including films as early as "The Four Troublesome Heads" (1898) and later ones like "The Man With the Rubber Head" (1901). The dissolve was really the final trick of significance in Méliès's body of work, done as early as 1899 for scene transitions but continuously being reproduced through a number of simple trick films to serve a similar function as would the film edit.

"The Imperceptible Transmutations" is a quick two-minute exercise of the latter effect, and bears a significant resemblance to "Fugitive Apparitions" of the same year. In both, Méliès is a magician who performs a basic magic act, making appear his female assistant who he causes to then disappear and transform. The dissolves utilized are gradually done, flaws being, of course, that as the woman appears Méliès's posture will shift by accident, showing a clear dissolve from one image to the next. A hard thing to be helped, this, and evidence that shows that while a slow dissolve is pleasant and works well in many situations, a film edit is much more seamless and will not show such inconsistencies. Overall, a typical magic show, yet enjoyable for what despite being fairly repetitive.