User Reviews

Another entertaining stop-motion movie from Segundo De Chomón in which an entire kitchen staff falls asleep after a hard day's sort-of work only to have their hands chopped off by a dwarf. The hands then carry out the food preparation that their owners have neglected to do. It's not his most impressive work, but it's still worth a watch.

To prepare a huge dinner at the Schloss kitchen requires a lot of work for the servants who must be locked up in there and on permanent call due to this Herr Graf's insatiable appetite( regarding the meals, not the servants, well… only by now… ). This certainly causes a lot of fuss and confusion in the kitchen.

An approximate idea of what usually happens at the Schloss kitchen can be seen in the short film "Le Rêve Des Marmitons" ( The Kitchen Boys Dream ) (1908), wherein the staff of another peculiar kitchen shares the same thrill as the one in the Schloss although with some weird variations.

In the picture while the staff are focused on cooking in a chaotic but merry way, a gnome play tricks on them ( well… through in the Schloss corridors you can easily find a lost-soul, tormented ancestor of this Herr Von, but… a gnome in the kitchen?!, no way!... ). This bizarre creature will do his mischief when the whole kitchen service dozes off; he chops off their hands that strangely begin to do efficiently the duties that belong to their owners, such as preparing the food, arranging the table linen or balancing the accounts. But during such bizarre rest, there is also time for leisure and a fly with artistic preoccupations draws funny faces on the bald heads of some kitchen cooks. Finally the spell is broken and-alas- the usual and noisy kitchen hustle and bustle resumes.

Who can direct and imagine such an extravagantly strange picture?: Herr Segundo de Chomón, who but him?!…

Thanks to his camera tricks and original inventiveness, such incredible stories are come to life for the joy of silent film fans; a gallery of the most early wonderful tricks that made him famous as one of the most important pioneers in animation techniques. These are little works of art wherein the most astonishing situations and strange creatures are made possible before our very commoner or aristocratic eyes. Sadly, this time there is no "Pathécolor".

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must explain to the Schloss chefs the fifty-course menu of tonight.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com

When the entire kitchen staff falls asleep from exhaustion, a dwarf appears and animates various objects via stop motion -- including their hands, which he cuts off while they snooze -- to do their work.

One of Georges Melies' themes appears in THE TIRED TAILOR'S DREAM, which de Chomon has borrowed for this short. His production values are greater than those of Melies (this kitchen is staffed with eight people, whereas Melies' films on the theme are typically solo performances), but de Chomon pulls out all stops, including the macabre chopping off of hands, wicker baskets that weave themselves and flies that draw faces on bald heads. The last feels a bit like padding to me and lesser, thereby, than the stuff Melies did.

The film is set in a kitchen from long ago--the type with lots of staff for a manor home. The chef is trying to work hard but his helpers are all a bunch of jerks. When he leaves the room, they strangely start doing acrobatics and fight--anything but work. And, when he returns, they get back to their work as if nothing had happened. Soon, however, they all fall asleep and one of the workers has a trippy dream that looks like they've been taking LSD!! An elf-like guy appears and begins cutting off their hands--and the hands independently continue their work for them! Thank goodness that the little guy puts their hands back when they are done---otherwise this would have been truly horrifying.

The special effects were quite good for 1908 and the film is darkly funny. My only complaint is near the end when the elf draws on the guy's head--it does seem like they were padding the film here (and I noticed one of the other reviewers felt the same). Still, a wild and weird film that you ought to see if you like early cinema.

Director Segundo de Chomón did not start out a particularly innovative or great director in any sense of the word. His earliest works were short documentations of Spain (save a few more innovative shorts like "Collision of Trains" of 1902), proving himself a fine cinematographer and a wonderful film colorist; as he progressed in his career he learned of the great French director Georges Méliès, and attempted passionately to defeat him by surpassing his work without success. His earliest trick films sometimes were quite stagy, contained no new or different innovations in their tricks, and even occasionally were direct Méliès ripoffs--see "The Charmer" of 1907. In other words, he was only a copy-cat of his rival, and did not improve in any sense upon the work that came before him.

That lasted for the majority of his years working for Pathé, from 1901-1907. In 1908, something changed. He learned the art of stop-motion animation, and that was when he became much more innovative and influential. His films began to become more elaborate: instead of direct ripoffs and stagy magic trick shorts like his predecessor, he started incorporating closeups into his work, creating a much more elaborate film structure such as that Griffith would later pioneer. His stop-motion animation was utterly charming, utilized with good effect, and was something completely new that Méliès had never done before. And thus, with these new techniques on his side, he outdid the cliche stagy magic acts of his rival and brought those acts up to date.

"The Scullion's Dream" is a particularly remarkable and notable film because of how these effects are utilized. Instead of using them as a magic show, they are here part of an insignificant little story--a story used to set up the effects, but one nevertheless. In this six minute work, a bunch of kitchen boys are at work in the kitchen, messing around whenever their boss is gone. A dwarf appears and causes to materialize a little potion, which all drink and causes everyone to fall asleep. The dwarf reappears and proceeding to chop off all their hands with a large butcher knife, the hands start doing the work they neglected--including cutting a cabbage, weaving a basket, stacking plates, etc. As pointed out by the other reviewers, the last bit--in which a fly draws on a man's bald scalp--is rather unnecessary but adds a certain amount of charm and sets up the final gag.

Reviewer boblipton says that because of this "padding" at the end--which also serves to place a copyright notice--the short is lesser than what Méliès had done years before. I think quite the opposite. To cut to closeups to display the animation is part of what makes this actually ahead of the French master. Closeups would become more and more frequent during the early 1910s, but during the 1900s, it was quite revolutionary. Furthermore, and as stated above, new illusions--ones unseen before and masterfully executed. It is quite sad that these illusions cannot be seen in their full glory, however--the surviving print is very scratched and whited out, very low quality and thus making certain details hard to see. Nonetheless, well-executed and quite different compared to the repetitiveness of Méliès's work, which was losing lots of popularity by this point in film history.