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5.2/10
144
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An obese cooks' lover succeeds in escaping the police after an incident involving her masters.An obese cooks' lover succeeds in escaping the police after an incident involving her masters.An obese cooks' lover succeeds in escaping the police after an incident involving her masters.
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Earlier Méliès Comedy
At this point in his career, Georges Méliès was beginning to realize that unlike years before, trick films were already almost out of style and filmmakers such as Edwin Porter and later D. W. Griffith were at work creating slapstick comedies and intense melodramas. So, deciding that it was time to put the magic tricks away and pull out the farce, he began to compete. "How Bridget's Lover Escaped" is an earlier example of the director's attempts to change with the times due of having been made in 1907, while much of his work in these fields took place in 1908. Méliès does not appear in the film at all, a rarity considering the many times he was before the camera playing the roles of the Devil, a weary traveler or a magician, which gave his films a distinct and energetic feel to them. Indeed, because of his lack of appearance here, this eight-minute comedy seems quite different from the rest of his earlier work and thus not a good place for those new to the director to begin.
While the slapstick in this piece certainly isn't funny by the standards of today, it is entertaining enough to the level of where you can enjoy it--despite the lack of camera tricks. The comedy begins in a kitchen, where a fireman finishes a meal prepared by the cook who he begins to fervently kiss. The diners in the other room, meanwhile, grow impatient at the delay and the fireman is quickly hid inside a chest whilst the cook puts on a fainting spell to get out of trouble. Discovering her 'passed out', the diners then decide to eat in the kitchen so that the fireman grows impatient and pulls a trick on them. The rest of the film is largely slapstick as the boyfriend escapes over the rooftops to avoid the foolish cops that pursue him.
The film shows plenty of evidence of Méliès trying to imitate his contemporaries in technique. To show the diner's annoyance of the delay, he cuts to the other room to get them running into the kitchen, before cutting back to the kitchen so that scene can catch up with where the previous one left off. This is a primitive form of cross-cutting, a technique seldom seen with Méliès and one which was later pioneered largely by Griffith. The closeup at the end was something seen more frequently in the director's output, but even that was not common for him. It's good to see Méliès trying to change with the times some, and considering the film's genre was something way off his menu he did a good job. The slapstick itself is creative in how it is carried off and despite seeming entirely different from his work in previous years, it is one of the better examples of a Méliès comedy.
While the slapstick in this piece certainly isn't funny by the standards of today, it is entertaining enough to the level of where you can enjoy it--despite the lack of camera tricks. The comedy begins in a kitchen, where a fireman finishes a meal prepared by the cook who he begins to fervently kiss. The diners in the other room, meanwhile, grow impatient at the delay and the fireman is quickly hid inside a chest whilst the cook puts on a fainting spell to get out of trouble. Discovering her 'passed out', the diners then decide to eat in the kitchen so that the fireman grows impatient and pulls a trick on them. The rest of the film is largely slapstick as the boyfriend escapes over the rooftops to avoid the foolish cops that pursue him.
The film shows plenty of evidence of Méliès trying to imitate his contemporaries in technique. To show the diner's annoyance of the delay, he cuts to the other room to get them running into the kitchen, before cutting back to the kitchen so that scene can catch up with where the previous one left off. This is a primitive form of cross-cutting, a technique seldom seen with Méliès and one which was later pioneered largely by Griffith. The closeup at the end was something seen more frequently in the director's output, but even that was not common for him. It's good to see Méliès trying to change with the times some, and considering the film's genre was something way off his menu he did a good job. The slapstick itself is creative in how it is carried off and despite seeming entirely different from his work in previous years, it is one of the better examples of a Méliès comedy.
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- Tornado_Sam
- Aug 2, 2018
Details
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Как сбежала любовница Бриджит
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime8 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was How Bridget's Lover Escaped (1907) officially released in Canada in English?
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