An Extraordinary Dislocation
About An Extraordinary Dislocation
Pierrot, played by André Deed, comes apart on a black stage. One arm leaves the body and moves by itself, then the other arm, the head, the legs, and the torso. The head floats over to a candle and lights a pipe. The loose limbs dance in the dark. They fasten back onto the body.
Cast & crew
More about An Extraordinary Dislocation
Georges Méliès made it for his Star Film Company and numbered it 335–336 in the catalogues. The French title is Dislocation mystérieuse. English titles include Dislocation Extraordinary, An Extraordinary Dislocation, Extraordinary Illusions, The Clown with the Portable Body, and Pierrot with Detached Limbs. Deed, a music-hall acrobat, plays Pierrot. One catalogue length is 39.62 metres. A print timing is 1 minute and 39 seconds. Another listing gives 2 minutes. Deed worked for Méliès until 1904, then went to Pathé, where he later played Cretinetti, and passed on some of the trick methods. Méliès used free-floating limbs again in The Infernal Cakewalk (1903).
Themes
Making
Deed was the body on screen. Méliès built the trick with substitution splices and multiple exposures rather than by playing Pierrot himself.
Technique
Substitution splices and multiple exposures against black cloth let the arms, head, legs, and torso hang and travel on their own.
Preservation
The film survives. A home-video release has carried it under the title Extraordinary Illusions. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- John Frazer, mixing this film up with a later Méliès title, called it Extraordinary Illusions. At least one home-video edition uses that wrong title.
- The limbs are a stage-magic idea Méliès knew from Nevil Maskelyne. Pierrot was already familiar in France from Jean-Gaspard Deburau's commedia revival.
- The background is black cloth, so the double exposures do not show a second set.
Scenes
- An arm detaches and moves around the set, then rejoins.
- The head floats to a candle and lights a pipe.
- Legs and torso come loose and dance before they are put back.
Influenced by
- Nevil Maskelyne's living-limb stage illusions
- Pierrot, from Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Influenced
- The Infernal Cakewalk (1903)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Dislocation mystérieuse (1901).webm)
