Danse serpentine (1900)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This is certainly a bizarre little film from French filmmaker Alice Guy. As the film starts off a lion tamer is in a cage with two lions and he's holding a cow, which of course must look like a tasty dish to them. He tries to keep the lions away from the cow with a couple nice tricks. From here, a woman (Mme Ondine) enters the cage and does a dance but what makes the dance so memorable is that it's hand tinted to give it a wonderful look. DANSE SERPENTINE was a very popular thing back in the day so it obviously makes sense trying to film it since you could sell it to audiences. This is certainly a very bizarre little film because you start off with a circus show before jumping into some terrific hand tinted coloring. I thought the coloring was beautiful to look at and the effect of Ondine waiving her hands certainly worked. What also worked was the very fun lion tamer stuff, which managed to have some nice drama.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
This is certainly a bizarre little film from French filmmaker Alice Guy. As the film starts off a lion tamer is in a cage with two lions and he's holding a cow, which of course must look like a tasty dish to them. He tries to keep the lions away from the cow with a couple nice tricks. From here, a woman (Mme Ondine) enters the cage and does a dance but what makes the dance so memorable is that it's hand tinted to give it a wonderful look. DANSE SERPENTINE was a very popular thing back in the day so it obviously makes sense trying to film it since you could sell it to audiences. This is certainly a very bizarre little film because you start off with a circus show before jumping into some terrific hand tinted coloring. I thought the coloring was beautiful to look at and the effect of Ondine waiving her hands certainly worked. What also worked was the very fun lion tamer stuff, which managed to have some nice drama.