A Moonlight Serenade
About A Moonlight Serenade
Pierrot is broke and hungry. He plays a guitar under the window of a rich lord, hoping for a few pennies. The lord, woken from sleep, drives him off and threatens him with a sword. Pierrot lies down on a stone bench, telling himself that whoever sleeps, dines, and dreams of the moon. In the dream she takes human form, throws him flowers, and asks him to sit beside her. He strikes up a victory tune. The lord rushes out to strike him. Pierrot leaps up into the arms of the moon, and the lord is turned into an old wandering beggar, chased by the Eye of God.
Cast & crew
More about A Moonlight Serenade
Georges Méliès sold the film through Star Film as catalog numbers 538–539. The French title is Au clair de la Lune ou Pierrot malheureux. In the United States it was A Moonlight Serenade, or the Miser Punished. In Britain it was Pierrot and the Moon. English Wikipedia dates the release to 1903 and times it at 2 minutes 52 seconds.
Themes
Making
The trick work uses stage machinery, including scenery that rolls sideways, plus an extreme close-up, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves.
Technique
Horizontally rolling scenery, an extreme close-up, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves carry the change from the stone bench to the moon and the lord's transformation into a beggar.
Notes
- Méliès plays the miser, the lord who drives Pierrot away.
- The Pierrot costume matches the one André Deed wore in Dislocation Extraordinary (1901). The actor in this film is not named.
- The Moon appears twice: first as the clown face of the Man in the Moon, then as the goddess Phoebe. Méliès used the same two faces in The Astronomer's Dream (1898), A Trip to the Moon (1902), and The Dream of an Opium Fiend (1908).
- An alternate English title on some lists is Pierrot's Grief.
Scenes
- The lord drives Pierrot from the window and threatens him with a sword.
- In the dream the moon throws Pierrot flowers and sits with him.
- Pierrot wakes in the moon's arms while the lord is turned into a beggar chased by the Eye of God.
