User Reviews

When I was very young (back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth if you ask my daughters!), I remember in school that we loved it when our teacher would show us a film--as if we pushed and begged, she'd often then show it to us backwards. We thought this was amazingly funny. Of course, we were only in the second grade! What did we know?! Well, this is my reaction to "The Fantastic Diver"--a film that simply keeps showing the same guy diving into the water and then they reverse it to show him jumping out. Folks back in 1906 might have laughed and laughed when they saw this, but today it just comes off as boring and stupid. The only interesting thing is that at two points the guy's clothes change when he goes in and comes out of the water due to an editing trick. Still, not a film I'd recommend unless you are really, really bored.

Segundo de Chomón, a Spanish filmmaker, is little known today--this is mostly because his competition, Georges Méliès, has gotten so popular that Chomón was forgotten. Very few people have seen his films today which is a real shame because they're sometimes very good. "The Fantastic Diver" is one of Chomón's efforts and while it is somewhat entertaining it's easy to see that the director was merely experimenting with the concept of reverse motion. Chomón's films were normally more elaborate than this here. What we see basically is a guy diving into a pond 10 times, one after the other. After he jumps in, they reversed the film to show him coming out backwards. He does various types of dives and there's a clothes change at the beginning and end. Today there's nothing interesting about this short film, but it's still fun for film buffs like me. It's also worth noting that instead of using lavish sets and costumes this was filmed in an outdoor setting.

The Fantastic Diver (1906)

** (out of 4)

This French movie probably played a lot better in 1906 than it does today but even back in the day I have my doubts that people were rushing to watch it a second time. What we've got is a man jumping and diving into the water. The catch here is that they then show the film in reverse so after he jumps in we see him immediately jump out the same way. At just around 90 seconds there's certainly nothing awful or damaging here but the effect just doesn't produce any laughs, which I'm sure what it's main goal. The "effect" is decent enough but it just doesn't add up to much.