The Fantastic Diver
About The Fantastic Diver
A swimmer comes up out of the water and lands on the diving board, headfirst. Ferdinand Zecca shot the dive the right way on the Canal de l'Ourcq and printed the negative backwards.
Cast & crew
More about The Fantastic Diver
Pathé catalogue 1270, listed by August 1905, 35 meters. Zecca told Pour vous in 1931, and L'Image in 1932, that he made the reverse-motion film himself on the Ourcq. The French title is Le Plongeur fantastique. The catalogue line calls it a scene of reversed movements. It played in Jerez on October 24, 1905, as Buceador fantástico.
Themes
Look
The trick is the print run backward, not a splice. Zecca shot it on the Canal de l'Ourcq.
Preservation
A print survives. The Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé holds a production still.
Notes
- Zecca's method was to develop the exposed film in reverse, so the dive runs backward.
- The swimmer leaves the water and climbs, upside down in effect, onto the board.
- A Wikimedia file of this title is credited to Segundo de Chomón. The Pathé catalogue and Zecca's own account name Zecca.
- A copy is on the Internet Archive as silent-plongeur-fantastique-aka-the-fantastic-diver.
Scenes
- The swimmer rises from the canal and meets the board headfirst.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-plongeur-fantastique-aka-the-fantastic-diver)
