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In less than 5 years, the cinema had made a gigantic jump from the short "documentaries" of the early pioneers (Le Prince, Dickson and the Lumière brothers) to the amazing Cinemagic of french director Georges Méliès, who became one of the first filmmakers to focus entirely in making fiction movies. Ever since he watched a movie for the first time (as a member of the Lumières' first audience), Méliès was convinced of the enormous potential of the new invention as a form of entertainment, as as soon as he could he started to make his own films. By 1901, stage magician Georges Méliès had already 5 years of making films and experimenting with special effects, and his movies were well-known around the world as the finest films of his time. With his many discoveries in the field of special effects, Méliès was able of making films that looked like real magic, and his movies became more complex with time, and even more fascinating.

"L' Homme à la Tête en Caoutchouc" (literally, "The Man with the Rubber Head") is another one of Méliès' many "trick films", which were short movies that showed him making an impossible magical trick. In this movie, an alchemist (as usual, Méliès himself) is preparing a strange experiment in his laboratory. The alchemist puts an odd devise on a table, and connects it to his bizarre creation: a living copy of his own head (Méliès again) that stands over the table without a clue about what will happen to it. Using an air pump he connected to the head, the alchemist begins to blow, and the living head begins to increase its size as if it was a balloon made of rubber. The head reaches a gigantic size, but the alchemist decides to release the air from it as he fears the head may explode. Proud of his invention, the alchemist decides to show it to his assistant (quite probably played by his wife Jeanne d'Alcy, but this is not confirmed), but the assistant may not be as careful as he was.

As in many of his early shorts, this movie is a "gimmick film", in other words, a movie devised around a special effect in order to show it like a magician would make a trick. In this case, the movie combines an excellent use of multiple exposures and editing to create the two heads, and a remarkably creative use of zoom to create the illusion of a head increasing its size. While a quite simple trick to our modern standards, the effect achieved is one of Méliès' most amazing and better done special effects, making "The Man with the Rubber Head" one of the best "gimmick films" in the Cinemagician's career. However, this short is more than an excellent gimmick, as what makes "The Man with the Rubber Head" different from his earlier films (and the similar movies of his competitors) is the care Méliès put to create a "story" to his trick.

While in his first films he simply appeared as a magician doing his show, in this movie there is a set build for the scene (instead of a simple circus stage), and while simple, the movie is clearly set in the middle ages. This gives the movie a distinct atmosphere, and already shows the path that Méliès was taking at that stage in his career, as that very same year he would start making his now famous series of fantasy films, which would be far more complex than his "gimmick films". One can say that it was with in those movies where Méliès tested his craft before making his masterpieces like "Le Voyage Dans la lune" the following years. 8/10

George Melies was a magician before he was a filmmaker, and he often discovered these film tricks while filming. George Melies stars in this film as a man who is able to inflate and then deflate a duplicate of his own talking head. He decides to let his assistant in on the fun with disastrous results. It's funny how today we have all of the technology and none of the imagination that these early film pioneers had. Melies' work can be found on youtube - it is not copyrighted - or on DVD if you prefer a hard copy with a bit of commentary. Melies has a tendency to do many of the same kinds of things repeatedly which will probably annoy many viewers. Just remember that Melies had no idea that we'd be watching his movies 100-120 years later, but I'm sure he would be delighted.

Wow. This is basically an exact copy of that Mario Party mini game with the balloon heads! Pretty funny, I wonder if this is where they got the idea?

This amusing Georges Méliès feature makes good use of a simple idea, and it features some camera tricks that are very nicely done for 1901. This is one of many movies that show Méliès himself as he makes use of his considerable talent and imagination, and here, as in many of his movies, he also seems to be having an awfully good time doing it.

The idea of "The Man With the Rubber Head" is the kind of offbeat, slightly macabre concept that Méliès seemed to be able to come up with almost effortlessly. It resembles a number of his other features from around the same time, in using multiple screen images of his own head as a source of special camera effects and humor, which in this case is sometimes of a rather morbid kind. It works quite well, and the quality of the effects is, as is almost always the case in a Méliès film, quite high, especially given its age.

'The Man With The Rubber Head (1901)' is a short film in which an alchemist experiments with a sentient replica of his own head, pumping air into it to increase its size. It's a single-gag scene that makes good use of a simple yet impressive visual effect to tell its tale. It's over 100 years old and it still holds up pretty well (though the effect is a little wonky here and there). It's an entertaining experience despite its simplicity. It'll likely put a smile on your face. 7/10.

Melies had a sense of playfulness about his films, and this is one of the more amusing ones: Melies takes a head -- which is Melies' head -- attaches it to some bellows, and blows it up like a balloon. True, there's no deep thought involved, but there needn't be. It's less than a minute and easily sustains the one joke.

Melies was inventing techniques as he went along, borrowing from other media, just as D.W. Griffith shortly would. There is an exuberance in seeing something done for the first time that is sorely lacking in later uses of the same editing effect. I suppose it's because Melies was having fun himself.

Melies inventiveness and surreal humour in full display. Whilst despite age and technical simplicity by modern standards there's still an endearing nature, largely to Melies's joviality in the film. A fun watch.

The very early French film director Méliès was super-famous for his trick cinematography. He deserved this fame for such standout films as Le Voyage Dans le Lune and I personally think he was the greatest movie maker of his age. Compared to Edison and Lumiere's films, his movies were always superior--featuring great sets, stories and camera-work. And, compared to later luminaries such as D. W. Griffith, I think Méliès' films are much more watchable today.

This film features the director's disembodied head as the star. Believe it or not, this was not very unusual for Méliès, as I have seen several films where his disembodied head performs! This is very clever and funny and it differs in this case because the head it enlarged again and again using a pump until it ultimately explodes! And, for the year it was made, it looked amazingly real! Funny stuff indeed.

If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.

It's safe to assume that Georges Méliès likely got the idea for The Man With the Rubber Head from jabs regarding his own 'swelling head' as self-styled filmmaker/magician extraordinaire. That same mischievous sense of playfulness pervades the short, aptly casting Méliès as 'mad scientist' on and off-camera, who toys with multiple exposure and a fascinating early tracking shot to create the illusion of inflating his own head with a set of fireplace bellows. What is the point of this experiment, both cinematically and narratively? Why, simply for the thrill of experimentation, and the joy of unusual visual marvels, naturally! And who could ask for anything more?

Fun supplants wonder as prime motivation here, as the mise-en-scène suggests a period-set skit as opposed to Méliès' usual fourth wall breaching 'magic trick' setup. There is no closing bow to the audience here, suggesting a more immersive, narrative-based approach to the medium, which Méliès would continue to push the envelope with in subsequent more story- based films such as the iconic Trip to the Moon. However, although the cinematic trickery is fun, even over a century after the short's release, it's really the physicality of Méliès himself – often overlooked as a talented physical comedian as well as groundbreaking filmmaker – that makes the short the most delightful. There's a great gag in the impromptu timing of his scientist's "Eureka!" gesture, seemingly arbitrarily interrupting his chemistry experiment to instead inflate his own head, and the rare early close-up of Méliès' expanded head indignantly writhing and waggling his moustache is endearingly charming in its own right.

Of course, the whole thing ends up a setup to a punchline that was likely predictable even in 1901, but it's still good fun, and sold with a classic slapstick boot to the rear for good measure. The Man With the Rubber Head may play as antiquated and gimmicky to contemporary audiences, but its cheeky, self-reflexive sense of humour is more than enough to deflate even the most curmudgeonly of critics, whose heads have probably had their fair share of being inflated themselves.

-8/10

The story in this film is about a magician who devises a contraption in which to inflate objects; in this case a replica of his own head.

Similar to other Georges Méliès short films, L'Homme à la Tête en Caoutchouc is based around a special effect. You could say it was a magic trick on film. Méliès was a conjurer so this is perhaps not surprising. To modern eyes it seems a little gimmicky but in the early days of cinema no one had actually worked out how to tell a narrative via the medium, therefore, many early films were showcases for illusions. In this case Méliès incorporated multiple exposures with zooms, which made it look as if the head was growing ever larger and larger. It's a crude yet effective effect and really illustrates the ingenuity and imagination of Méliès. I always find it quite incredible how those early cinema pioneers almost immediately started thinking about using the medium to show the impossible. They hadn't quite learned how to tell a story of any complexity but in films like this they were starting to incorporate their tricks within simple narratives. This is a playful little film that is somewhat amusing.

A chemist is hard at work in his laboratory creating a copy of his own head. When he succeeds he places it on a table and watches it animatedly respond to him. However, then he gets a pair of bellows and decides to see ho big he can make this rubber head by inflating it himself – with awful results.

Back when many films were very descriptive and very 'real' in their subjects, Méliès must have been a bewildering influence. Films called 'man riding a horse' were wowing them in the moving pictures (or movies as they are still called) by doing exactly what they said on the tin, or in other words, such a film would feature a man on a horse, a training coming into a station and so on. Méliès created short films that contain visual images that still retain their appeal today and will be known to many people (even if they don't know that they are his images!) and this is the modern appeal of his films to me. Sure they are simple in terms of substance and are more style over content but remember these are a century old – think of how they must have been viewed then!

This is one example but it is not one of his best for my money. The film is weird even watching it now and it is far more about visual impact than about its narrative foundation or substance. It looks great and some of the effects show him to have been years ahead of his time – anyone looking for meaning or plot will be annoyed but the focus is visuals and, in this regard, it still works and is very imaginative and funny. True, it is obvious now and we all know how the effects were done and what the joke is going to be, but it is impossible to watch this without being impressed by how visionary Méliès was and what an impact the sheer originality and imagination of this film must have made back then.

I have watched many rubbish films and many good films that have lasted two hours; this film lasts only a very minutes and is well worth the amount of time it took for me to watch it. Méliès' images are still in the public psyche today and this film, while not his most famous, is another good example of why that is the case.

Melies place a head on a table (a head identical to his own). He attaches a hose to the heads lower part, and, using a bellows, proceeds to blow it up. Eventually, it becomes bigger than a full sized person. Unfortunately, another man comes in and takes the bellows and goes too far. This is creative and interesting. I just realized how much Melies looked like Jimmy Finlayson.

Incidentally the first Meme (or we can say Gif, right) in the history of civilization came by way of George Melies, and in all likely-hood by accident.

This is a very bizarre and completely lovably deranged short by the great magician of the pioneer-cinema era, where what we get is a man's head blown up in proportion, then shrunken back, and then, blown up again until it explodes (which, somehow and someway, doesn't make the mad scientist who created this contraption very happy). Oh, and the Chemist who creates this is also the man who plays the man with his head blowing up like Violet Beauregard - Melies himself - and he does about the best Giant Blow-Up Head Man performance in a short amount of time as possible.

Though one can see today the lines where the film is split off into its section to create the effect - what is in essence a primitive version of what we might have seen in the films up until around thirty years ago, where an actor is in one place in the frame, and then inside of that frame is another image created with a separate set of film - it is still a glorious spectacle that does what it needs to within two minutes. It's like seeing a little comic strip come to life, and the marvel of that image outweighs a lack of, you know, story development or in-depth character. Melies wasn't about that anyway, he just wanted to wow people. And, above all else, it's really friggin' funny to see him do this to himself; I'd expect to see a similar effect in a 90's music video (incidentally, Smashing Pumpkins used Trip to the Moon for Tonight Tonight, but I digress).

Georges Méliès had been using the trick of multiple-exposure photography (or superimpositions) since at least "The Cabinet of Mephistopheles" (Le cabinet de Méphistophélès) (1897) (a lost film). One of his earliest and best surviving examples of this trick remains "The Four Troublesome Heads" (Un homme de têtes) (1898). By 1901, he and nearly every other filmmaker had employed the trick in dozens to hundreds of films. He took the gimmick about as far as he could in this form with the sevenfold exposure of "The One-Man Band" (L'homme orchestre) (1900). In other words, the effect could use some new life, even by then. Méliès gave it just that with "The Man with the Rubber Head".

It appears to be the first film, or at least the earliest surviving or available one, in which the director discovered the fantastical and amusing possibilities of enlarging or shrinking one exposure while not the other. He loved it so much that his next two films listed in the Star catalogue (and also available on the Flicker Alley set) employed the same technique. As usual, other filmmakers, too, were quick to imitate his work; one example might be the giant ogre in Walter Booth and Robert W. Paul's "The Magic Sword" (1901) (although it's contested who did it first - see my review of "The Magic Sword" for more details). For the growing and shrinking head in "The Man with the Rubber Head", Méliès moved towards and away from the camera via a chair and pulley for one exposure, which was to be joined with the other of the chemist (also Méliès) and his assistant. All of this was done in-camera and thus required precise execution. Méliès's body excepting his head was covered by black as to prevent exposure (i.e. masking). A stop-substitution (or substitution-splicing) was used for the explosion of the head-this trick was even more tired than superimpositions.

It's also worth noting that this is, in a way, a rare and early use of the close-up by Méliès. It's actually one of the earliest close-ups of the face that I've seen or know of (not counting the medium close-up popularized by "The Kiss" (1896) - that not being as close of framing). Other early close-ups tended not to be of the face, such as the magnified objects in George Albert Smith's "As Seen Through a Telescope" and "Grandma's Reading Glass" (both 1900). Méliès's close-up is also interesting because it's the reverse or ersatz of a dolly or trucking inward shot-moving the actor rather than the camera. The dolly shot becoming a close-up was later used as the attraction in single-shot Biograph films "Hooligan in Jail" (1903) and "Photographing a Female Crook" (1904). Méliès's close-up also remains within the long-shot framing of the outer exposure.

Man With The Rubber Head, The (1901)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka L'Homme à la tête en caoutchouc

This here is one of the director's best known and most loved films and that's understandable due to the wonderful magic created here. Meiles once again plays the magician who puts a head (again Meiles') on a table and blows it up to a large side, lets the air out and then blows it back up again. This is certainly one of the director's best films as it's guaranteed to keep a smile on your face the entire time. The special effects are very well done and hold up quite well today but the highlight is certainly the ending but I won't ruin that for you. If you're new to the director's work then this here would be a great place to start.

In Georges Melies film 'The Man With the Rubber Head', what is it that is suspended? Our belief or our disbelief? The modern audience is desensitised to what is witnessed, which to the films modern audience would have seemed particularly, lets say 'futuristic'. If technological advancements have affected the way in which we apprehend phenomena on-screen, does it affect the way in which we apprehend further life? Is it possible that life in a technological advanced society is less real than before? However, will the 'real' and the 'possible' be "more" as technology advances?

What this film does more than any other in the digital age is demonstrate artistic creativity. The illusion which (really) exists before us was not borne by the touch of a button, but crafted with a patience, that is rare in our postmodern dullness.

Georges Méliès creates a now familiar illusion of a head increasing in size in The Indian Rubber Head, something that was considered groundbreaking in those times because of the super-impositions it uses to bring together the three frames. The one ahead has Georges play a chemist conducting a baffling experiment of inflating a human head ("how did he get the head, by the way? Was the chemist a murderer who severed his victim's head for experiments?" I bet this is what a few crazy analysts must be pondering!) after placing it on a table and blowing air through a rubber tube with the help of bellows. The scene behind is painted, and the bulbous head was done with another camera trick, and all these devices have been explained lucidly by a fellow reviewer in IMDb.

I admire Méliès' devotion to his work; just look how freely and delightedly he plays the characters in the film. I salute such committed individuals and would like if others can open-mindedly appreciate these vintage works.