The Man with the Rubber Head
About The Man with the Rubber Head
In a laboratory an apothecary, played by Georges Méliès, sets a living copy of his own head on a table and pumps it up with a bellows. The head grins and makes faces. He lets the air out. He then has his assistant try the experiment. The assistant pumps too far, the head bursts in a cloud of smoke, and the apothecary throws him out.
Cast & crew
More about The Man with the Rubber Head
Georges Méliès made L'Homme à la tête en caoutchouc for Star Film in 1901, catalogue numbers 382–383. He plays both the apothecary and the head. The English title is also A Swelled Head. The French catalogue lists 50 meters, about 2 minutes 30 seconds. English-language reference works often give 3 minutes. The swelling head is a double exposure combined with a head on a moving platform.
Themes
Making
Méliès put his own head in front of a black ground, rolled it toward the lens, and superimposed that shot on the laboratory so the bellows seems to inflate it.
Technique
The growing head is a multiple exposure: Méliès's head, on a rig that moves toward the camera, is printed over the laboratory shot.
Preservation
The film survives. Catalogue length is 50 meters.
Notes
- Star Film numbers 382 and 383 cover the picture.
- Méliès is the only player named. The assistant is not identified.
- The head laughs with him before the air is let out.
- The explosion is the assistant's mistake, not the first trial.
- The film is silent.
Scenes
- The apothecary pumps his duplicate head until it fills the room, then lets it down.
- The assistant overfills it and the head bursts.
- He throws the assistant out of the laboratory.
