The Ballet Master's Dream
About The Ballet Master's Dream
Signor Saltarello, an Italian ballet master played by Georges Méliès, tries out steps while his maid turns down the bed. He falls asleep still beating time. Two dancers appear on the bed, then on the floor, and merge into one eccentric dancer, Zizi Papillon. She drops into his arms. As he kisses her she turns into her mother. He thrashes the old woman, rolls onto the floor, and wakes to find he is beating his pillow. The maid runs in. He sees it was a dream and laughs.
Cast & crew
More about The Ballet Master's Dream
French title Le Rêve du maître de ballet. The American release title is The Ballet-Master's Dream; the British title is The Dream of the Ballet Master. Star Film 525–526. Sold length 50 meters (155 feet). Copyrighted in the United States on 4 December 1903, numbers H38792 and H38794. The dream effects are substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves.
Themes
Making
Méliès is Saltarello, on screen for the whole bedroom scene, so the dancers have to be popped in around him by stopping the camera.
Look
A fixed camera faces the bedroom. The two dancers, their merge into Papillon, and the swap of the girl for her mother are done with splices, superimpositions, and dissolves.
Preservation
A paper print survives at the Library of Congress. A projection copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Zizi Papillon, credited in the American catalog for the eccentric dance, performed at the Folies Bergère and the Casino de Paris.
- The Library of Congress paper-print summary tells the waking differently: Saltarello finds the maid doing the dream steps, not beating a pillow.
- A paper print is held by the Library of Congress.
- The 155-foot copyright length matches a running time of about 2 minutes 35 seconds at 16 frames a second.
Scenes
- Two dancers on the bed become one, and Papillon's kiss turns into her mother.
- Saltarello wakes on the floor, still hitting the pillow.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Rêve du maître de ballet)
- Library of Congress (paper print, copyright H38792)
