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Le squelette joyeux

  • 1897
  • 1m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
Le squelette joyeux (1897)
ComedyFantasyHorrorShort

A skeleton dances joyously, often collapsing into a heap of bones and quickly putting itself back together.A skeleton dances joyously, often collapsing into a heap of bones and quickly putting itself back together.A skeleton dances joyously, often collapsing into a heap of bones and quickly putting itself back together.

  • Director
    • Louis Lumière
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.4/10
    1.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Louis Lumière
    • 11User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos10

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    User reviews11

    6.41.2K
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    Featured reviews

    10cantavlak

    Perfect

    Among the simplest yet best movies ever, comedy and horror join in this flawless short. watch it now it won't cost you a minute nor a penny,since it's in the public domain. thank you ,lumiere brothers, thank you
    10diogohenrivintem

    The funniest film of early films

    This short film is hilarious! It is just a skeleton dancing, but he's so clumsy that makes it funny. I actually laughed at this one, which is very rare in this early short films. This Auguste & Louis Lumière film is the most creative and best edited film of the early cinema. Sincerely, I don't know how this is not the most famous film of the Lumière Brothers. I also rated L'arrive dun train with 10 out of 10, but just because these re pieces of history. These are the great images of the dawn of cinema. It certainly shows us the importance of the brothers in cinema, them, LePrince, Edison, William Dickinson and others made one of the most beautiful things ever, the motion picture. I like to watch this early films, I believe every cinephile does and this is probably the funniest of them, I thing people should valorize these films more.
    10catpantry

    Were all doing

    What were supposed to, or else! A woman sits by a swamp thinking about what had happened before. She saw a mini purple object with a soul on a treadmill staring at a pucture of the crossed out sun. She had been entranced, and took a nap right there. The sun rose and kind of bleached here mind so she built a room full of warm water (with 0 entrance) out of play dough and set it next to the purple object. The purple object slowly turned its attention to the room, and basically ended up not looking away from it while moving on its machine. And..the woman stared at that with a blank face.
    10galenfott

    Not stop motion animation!

    While this film is fascinating and delightful, it is absolutely not stop motion animation. It is a film of a "break apart" skeleton marionette, nothing more. I have a skeleton marionette made by the Pelham Puppets company that does all these tricks. Clearly the design for the marionette was around at the turn of the century, and Pelham mass-marketed it. I'm astonished that this film is widely regarded as "one of the first stop motion films", when it is nothing of the kind. That's all I have to say, but unfortunately the IMDb is insisting that my review isn't long enough, so I'm writing more words. The film itself is only 45 seconds long! How many words can one write about a 45 second film?
    Michael_Elliott

    Le Squelette Joyeux (1898)

    Le Squelette Joyeux (1898)

    Long before Disney had THE SKELETON DANCE, there was this forty-second film from the Lumiere Brothers. Basically we see a skeleton (attached to wires) dancing around. As it dances faster and faster parts of it begin to fall off and then attach itself back to the body. This certainly isn't the work of Georges Melies but it's still pretty darn good and it's certainly very entertaining. It's obvious to see how the dance is being done but this really doesn't take away from the entertainment factor and especially when you consider when this was made. The goal was to make viewers laugh and I'm sure many did back in the day, although the sight of the skeleton might have scared some as well.

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    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
    Fantasy
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)
    Short

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The film is also known as "The Dancing Skeleton".
    • Connections
      Edited into The Lumière Brothers' First Films (1996)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 20, 1898 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Language
      • None
    • Also known as
      • The Dancing Skeleton
    • Production company
      • Lumière
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1m
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Silent

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