François 1er et Triboulet

François 1er et Triboulet
(The King and the Jester)

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[Brendan Burchill]

"The King and the Jester" is one of my favorite of the later Melies films, produced after 1907. The film is a charming variation on a number of Georges Melies' recurrent motifs: the magic act.

While there is very little about "The King and the Jester" that seems new to me, it is an energetic example of Melies's sense of humor. There is a great variety of entertainment within the film's short length. Humor is not limited to special effects: the Jester character to perform a few back flips and other stunts that have little or nothing to do with trick photography. Even more appealing are the flashes of expressive acting that Melies gives this central character. Melies himself plays the Jester. As this character, he expresses sorrow and disappointment as he does backflips that fail to entertain the sorrowful king. Yet, the Jester expresses a mischievous, eye-catching laugh as he pulls a number of clever substitution and levitation routines that eventually slowly pull the king out of his sorrowful condition. It is worth noting that near the end of the film, both the Jester and the King walk towards and past the camera as they laugh heartily. The technique of having the two actors move toward the camera at the end of the film was something that Melies was exploring with greater frequency in 1907 and 1908, although this method of staging had been used by other film makers before.

I would like to add a general note: Melies had one of the most marvellous and expressive faces of all early twentieth century film performers. He had a truly amazing skill at creating grotesque expressions that instill audiences with true joy. I like that in portraying the Jester in this film, Melies exhibits subtler emotions, but feelings that are just as charming as the broader characterizations in many of his other films.

While I think that "The King and the Jester" is a fine motion picture and a good example of Melies' trick films, I will tentatively suggest that he did not do all of his own stunts. If you look carefully at the movie, one will see signs of a concealled cut just as the Jester begins his backflips and a second concealled cut when he stops to ask the King's approval. I speculate that Melies (who would have been in his mid-forties when he made "The King and the Jester") hired a professional acrobat and had him perform the backflips while wearing the Jester costume and beard. Note that one never gets a clear look at the Jester's face during the backflips! In postproduction, Melies may have edited the stunt footage into the rest of the scene, where Melies is clearly the actor playing the Jester.

I am not suggesting the use of stunt footage diminish Melies' talents or to lessen the merits of this film in particular. If anything, I am astonished at how smoothly the footage of the actor and the stuntman are combined in the finished movie. Then again, I might be mistaken about this matter. Does any know for sure?

[A Facebook User]

Wow, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. The humor and editing, very charming for it's time and coniderable for todays audience.