The Christmas Dream

This appears as a rather disjointed film, lacking a firm narrative. Early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès based it on contemporary seasonal stage performances, and the result is a series of vignettes relating to Christmas. The center is one family, but only as bookends, or a framing, to the views. Additionally, the film begins with children going to sleep, which, especially in early cinema language and even more so for Méliès's films, strongly suggests that what follows is a dream. (Plus, the title gives it away.) The second scene is meant to be dancing toys and the third is of angels dropping presents down a chimney. It's fruitless to view the rest of the scenes within the dream context, however, even though there is no clear transition from dreamworld back to reality. All scenes are transitioned by dissolves, which was the standard Méliès established in his prior year's release "Cinderella" and for which he continued to use for much of his oeuvre. Overall, "The Christmas Dream' is interesting for being somewhat different from Méliès's other films, which were usually of the féerie (fairy films) and trick film genres.

On a side note, besides being somewhat disjointed, this film doesn't seem as polished as some of Méliès's other films are. The opening scene is only a few seconds, as opposed to the lengthy toys dance which follows. In the angels on rooftops tableau, there's a brief glimpse of a misplaced double exposed angel. For at least one transition, the in-camera dissolve barely appears. Yet, I suppose, these are minor errors to criticize a motion picture from 1900 for.

Christmas Dream, The (1900)

** (out of 4)

aka Reve de Noel

Interesting film from director Meiles shows the dream of two children on Christmas Night. This film runs just over three minutes and I can't say that I really enjoyed it but there were several interesting things in it. The best scene of the movie is the one at night where angels walk on the house roof's in order to protect the people. We get several other Christmas themed stuff including a large card and some people singing in the street but none of it kept me too entertained. The most interesting aspect for me was seeing various Christmas ordaments that were used at the time. Some of the toys the kids got for Christmas were also interesting to see.

While all the vignettes are interesting to a degree, other than this supposedly being a child's dream, each item has nothing to do with the next. There are huge toys. There are people going to eat and hypocritically ignoring the poor outside the restaurant. There are a number of dance scenes. We also have a hodgepodge of angels and other Christmas figures coming through. While it is visually stunning in places, as a movie, it doesn't really go anywhere.

"The Christmas Dream" ("Ler Rêve de Noël") is a film that crams a LOT into four minutes! And, unlike many of Georges Méliès' movies, it's not about magic but about Christmas. In the film you see many different vignettes involving Christmas celebrations....and the sheer number of costumes and complexity of the sets is amazing for this filmmaker. The problem, however, is that there really isn't a coherent narrative...just lots of vignettes about the holiday and revelers. In other words, it's all quite pretty to look at but nonsensical. And, like so many of the films by Méliès, there's some pointless dancing at the end.

Technically speaking, this is an exceptional film for its time. But the lack of a coherent plot make it less satisfying. Worth seeing if you are a fan of his work...otherwise, you might want to pick a different film as an introduction to the art of Georges Méliès.