The Clockmaker's Dream
About The Clockmaker's Dream
A clockmaker, Georges Méliès, fights a stubborn piece of clockwork, sets it on the table, and dozes. Three women appear behind him and, in new costumes, group themselves into a clock. He climbs a table for a better look, and the shop dissolves into a palace garden. He puts his arms around the central figure and finds he is hugging a grandfather clock. The other two have become clocks as well. The garden fades back to the workshop. He wakes, checks the clocks, and decides he dreamed it.
Cast & crew
More about The Clockmaker's Dream
French title Le Rêve de l'horloger. Sold in Britain as The Dream of the Clock Maker. Star Film 554–555. Substitution splices and dissolves make the women and the change of scene. Méliès used the globe prop and the park backdrop again the same year in The Wonderful Living Fan.
Themes
Making
The three women change costume and lock into a clock shape, then the same performers, or substitutes, are replaced by clock cases for the punchline.
Look
The shop is a frontal set. A dissolve opens the palace garden, and splices turn the women into clocks. Méliès is in the shot as the clockmaker.
Preservation
A print on Wikimedia Commons runs 2 minutes 32 seconds.
Notes
- The American Star Film text has him puzzling over the mechanism before he sleeps, not simply sitting down tired.
- He is awake inside the dream long enough to walk around the living clock and climb onto a table.
- A Wikimedia Commons print runs 2 minutes 32 seconds.
Scenes
- The women arrange themselves as a timepiece, and the shop opens into a palace garden.
- Méliès embraces the central figure and is hugging a grandfather clock.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Rêve de l'horloger)
