At the Hypnotist's
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About At the Hypnotist's
A woman comes to a hypnotist to be treated, and one pass of his hand puts her in a trance while the next takes her clothes. A gendarme walks in. The hypnotist dresses her again, then swaps their outfits so she wears the uniform and he wears the dress. The two run, the hypnotist chases them, and the short ends in a scramble.
Cast & crew
More about At the Hypnotist's
Alice Guy directed the Gaumont short, catalogued as C146. A Gaumont list prices it at 40 francs for about 20 meters and dates it before November 1898. The man who plays the hypnotist also plays the magician in Scène d'escamotage, shot the same year. The Gaumont DVD Le cinéma premier, 1897–1913, volume 1, is the source usually cited for the 1898 date rather than 1897.
Themes
Making
Guy uses the visit as a string of costume changes. The plot is the excuse for the splices.
Look
The scene is a single interior, with the clothes changes made by substitution splices.
Notes
- A Gaumont catalogue line describes the woman undressed, then dressed again in part of the gendarme's clothes while he puts on hers.
- The short was shown in Palma de Mallorca on October 15, 1900, under the title En casa del magnetizado.
- The tricks are substitution splices of the kind Georges Méliès was using in the same years.
Scenes
- One gesture and the patient is undressed; the next swaps her clothes with the gendarme's.
Influenced by
- Georges Méliès trick films of the 1890s
