Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus (1905) Georges Méliès

Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus (French: L'ile de Calypso ou Le Géant Polyphème ) is a trick film from 1905 directed and produced by • Georges Méliès , retracing the adventures of Ulysses in the Odyssey: the meeting with Calypso, the fight against Polyphemus and the departure from the island.
In terms of treatment, staging and narration, this is a far cry from previous adaptations ( • Cenerentola (1899) Geo... or • Barbablù (1901) George... ), and the film's main interest lies in its technical aspects: the illusion of the giant hand emerging from the cave and the trickery used in the fight scene against the Cyclops. Once again, Méliès exploits myth in the service of technique.
Synopsis . (00:07) Ulysses, tired from the journey, falls asleep in front of a cave. (00:40) From the cavern come nymphs playing and dancing around the sleeping hero. Calypso appears (1:43), the sorceress wakes Ulysses, who immediately professes love to her, (2:16) but the woman disappears, leaving the man alone to face a gigantic arm that emerges from the cave (2:25). The arm then mutates into the head of the Cyclops Polyphemus (2:41), so the hero takes up his spear and plants it in the monster's one eye, which can do nothing but disappear. (03:13) Out of the cavern comes Calypso. The woman tries in vain to hold back the man who instead leaves her among his weeping nymphs.
Méliès drew inspiration for his stories everywhere, from classical literature as well as from fairy tales, from science fiction novels to Greco-Roman mythology, and he often combined several stories together, as in this case: that of the nymph Calypso and that of the Cyclops Polyphemus are two separate episodes in Homer's Odyssey, which here Méliès recomposes into a single story and a single scene.
#Melies #Ulysses #Calypso #Polyphemus #Odissey
Notes to the present edition
The coloring of the video is not that of the original film: it was done by us digitally to make it more pleasing to you.
Texts, translations and special contents of this edition by @iconaus

[@canallumiere3103]

Méliès não foi apenas um dos maiores gênios da sétima arte, mas também um homem culto e de boas referências literárias. O cinema atual precisa de mais cultura. A alma humana agradece!

[@StephenLyons-tl8ie]

Clever stuff!!

[@iconaus]

thank you

[@kittymervine6115]

in ways stage never could!

[@ronvanwegen]

Still better than Star Wars!

[@iconaus]

this was not difficult