A Little Jules Verne
About A Little Jules Verne
A mother puts her boy to bed. When she leaves, he takes out a book and falls asleep. The wall behind him becomes a screen with a portrait of Jules Verne. He dreams a night sky full of comets, then an airship: the wall opens, he climbs into the basket, and he looks at the world through a spyglass. Lightning hits the balloon and the fire is colored. His mother picks up the book, not surprised, and puts the sorry, happy child back to bed.
Cast & crew
More about A Little Jules Verne
Gaston Velle directed the Pathé trick film. The French title on the Pathé catalog, as cited by the Library of Congress, is Un petit Jules Verne. Pathé Frères released it in the United States in 1907. The LOC record notes a brief color scene: when lightning strikes the balloon, the fire is colored, and the original nitrate had some hand-coloring.
Themes
Reviews
Janne Wass, on Scifist (13 March 2018), calls the film a hasty Pathé reply to Méliès’s Under the Seas: the dream frame stays, and a boy replaces the fisherman.
Technique
The original nitrate was partly hand-colored. In the surviving description, lightning strikes the balloon and the fire is in color.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The Library of Congress holds a viewing copy. Its catalog note says the original nitrate was partly hand-colored.
Notes
- The Library of Congress item is titled A little "Jules Verne" and gives the number 2006641952.
- LOC subject headings list children’s dreams and Jules Verne.
- Janne Wass, writing on Scifist on 13 March 2018, reads the short as Pathé’s answer to Méliès’s Under the Seas, with the dreamer changed from a fisherman to a boy.
- The colored flame is the only tinted passage the LOC note describes.
Scenes
- The bedroom wall opens onto a portrait of Verne and then an airship.
- Lightning strikes the balloon and the fire is the colored shot.
Influenced by
- Jules Verne’s novels
- Georges Méliès’s Under the Seas (1907), as read by Janne Wass
Also available
- Library of Congress (2006641952)
