The Christmas Dream
About The Christmas Dream
An older woman puts two children to bed and reads beside them. A wizard, played by Georges Méliès, watches a landscape of toys until a jester sets the dolls dancing, then restores order. Snow falls on the village roofs while angels hand out boxes, and a church fills for Mass around a huge bell, with a feast that seats a beggar. Christmas morning brings presents at the fireplace. The last tableau is a winter scene and a giant Christmas tree.
Cast & crew
More about The Christmas Dream
Star Film numbered it 298–305 and advertised a féerie cinématographique à grand spectacle in 20 tableaux. The catalogue length is 70 meters. Méliès also plays the beggar at the feast, and the film may draw on an 1896 stage production of the same name at the Olympia music hall in Paris.
Themes
Music
Silent.
Preservation
An incomplete print at the British Film Institute is arranged differently from the Star Film description and is short by 20 feet. That copy went to home video in the 2000s still short.
Notes
- Run at 18 frames a second, the 70-meter length is 3.5 minutes.
- Effects include a Christmas tree that opens and a church bell worked by stage machinery, plus substitution splices and dissolves.
- The bell-tower shot is joined to the church interior by a dissolve.
- A 1979 study thought a second print might be in a private collection, but that copy was not available to view.
Scenes
- Angels drop packages onto the snowy roofs.
- A beggar is given a seat at the church feast.
- Children stare at a huge Christmas tree in the snow.
