Between Calais and Dover
About Between Calais and Dover
Passengers on a steamer marked Robert-Houdin Star Line pitch through a Channel crossing. A man in a checked suit, played by Georges Méliès, fights seasickness. A heavily bearded clergyman talks to the miserable travelers. A captain watches from the upper deck. The boat’s roll is a studio platform, not the sea.
Cast & crew
More about Between Calais and Dover
Méliès wrote, directed, and produced Star Film No. 112 in 1897. The rocking deck is an articulated platform he had built that year for Sea Fighting in Greece. Georgette Méliès plays a girl with a doll. Joseph Grapinet is the man with binoculars. The short runs about one minute. English titles include Between Dover and Calais.
Themes
Making
The gag is the floor. Méliès tips the set under the actors so hats, stomachs, and the clergyman’s small talk all slide with one mechanism.
Look
The camera stays on the deck while the articulated platform supplies the roll. No location shooting on the Channel is involved.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print of the one-minute film survives.
Notes
- The hull lettering names the Robert-Houdin Star Line, after the theater Méliès ran.
- The same platform had just been used for a Greece sea-fight picture.
- Méliès is the checked suit, not the captain and not the clergyman.
- A print survives.
Scenes
- The deck stamped Robert-Houdin Star Line tips under the passengers.
- Méliès, in checks, tries not to be sick.
- The bearded clergyman keeps talking while the boat rolls.
- The captain looks down from the upper deck.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Entre Calais et Douvres (1897).webm)
