Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants
About Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants
Georges Méliès plays Gulliver. He lands at night in Lilliput, wakes tied down, and is stuck with arrows by the little soldiers. He soon becomes their friend. When the queen visits, he lifts her palanquin onto his table. A fire starts in the palace and he puts it out with a bottle of sparkling water. Among the giants, the king’s daughter finds him in a handkerchief and sets him on the card table. The smoke bothers him. He climbs a ladder to speak to her and falls into a cup of coffee.
Cast & crew
More about Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants
Star Film numbers 426–429. The listed length is 80 meters, or 280 feet. Scale changes were made with multiple exposures, miniature buildings, and substitution splices. Some Lilliput scenes were shot outdoors in the garden so the camera could sit far from the small figures. American Mutoscope and Biograph and Edison Manufacturing also handled American copies in 1903.
Themes
Making
Méliès plays Gulliver himself. The garden camera position is what makes the Lilliputians read as tiny.
Look
Georges Méliès photographed it, including the outdoor garden shots used for the Lilliput scale.
Technique
Multiple exposures join Gulliver to miniature houses and to the giant table. Substitution splices cover the jumps in scale.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A stencil-colored print is held at the Cineteca di Milano. Flicker Alley issued a DVD in the United States in 2008. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as Le Voyage de Gulliver (1902).webm.
Notes
- The French title is Le Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les Géants.
- The British release title was Gulliver’s Travels—In the land of the Lilliputians and the Giants.
- A stencil-colored print is at the Cineteca di Milano. Méliès’s usual colored prints were painted freehand under Elisabeth Thuillier.
Scenes
- Gulliver wakes in Lilliput tied with ropes while arrows stick him.
- He lifts the queen’s palanquin onto his table.
- He puts out the palace fire with a bottle of sparkling water.
- He falls off a ladder into the princess’s coffee.
Influenced by
- Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Voyage de Gulliver (1902).webm)
- Flicker Alley DVD (2008, United States)
