How Monsieur Takes His Bath
About How Monsieur Takes His Bath
A man starts to undress for his bath. Each piece he takes off is replaced at once by another garment that was not there a moment before. He never reaches the water.
Cast & crew
More about How Monsieur Takes His Bath
French filmographies credit Alice Guy and Gaumont, and date the short to 1903. Other catalogues leave the director blank and also name Ferdinand Zecca, who is the man in the shot in some accounts. The gag repeats Georges Méliès's Le Déshabillage impossible (1900), released in English as Going to Bed Under Difficulties, in which clothes reappear as a man tries to get into bed.
Themes
Making
The film is one trick, repeated. A cut replaces each discarded garment with a new one, down to the polka-dot underwear and then back to a full suit.
Look
Stop-substitution puts a new set of clothes on the man every time he gets a layer off.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- By 1903 Zecca had been directing for Pathé for several years, which is why his appearance in front of the camera, if it is him, is the odd credit.
- The Méliès original uses the same stop-motion replacement of clothes, aimed at a bed rather than a bath.
Scenes
- He gets down to his underwear, and a fresh suit appears on him.
Influenced by
- Georges Méliès's Le Déshabillage impossible (1900)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-comment-monsieur-prend-son-bain-aka-how-monsieur-takes-his-bath)
