Segundo de Chomón

A sportive and elegant monkey with magical powers defends himself, and then with the help of a policeman, against the robber who assaults his house.

"The War and the Dream of Momi" was a patriotic war film directed by Giovanni Pastrone. Segundo de Chomón was responcible for the animation effects. (imdb)

It is simply a compilation of views of Toledo, but fascinating ones, nonetheless, showing bridges, walls and other architectural highlights that appear to date from as early as the 8th century. (imdb)

A short tour of the city.

This piece is told in multiple scenes, in an increasingly artificial world, as the venue shifts from a realistic courtyard to a wild, stagebound prison in which various stage monsters appear. (imdb)

This magical masterpiece was released in 1912 by Segundo de Chomón. (youtube.com)

A trick film from Segundo de Chomón with stop-motion and live action. (imdb)

The illusions begin but, alas, the fragment ends before we see the supple dancers, amphitrites and Venus emerging from her nacreous shell as promised by the catalogue.

Documentary style pieces about the town of Barcelona.

Early special effects in which a devil shows his magical abilities

A series of shots documenting Barcelona as it was in 1911.

A house is haunted by a spirit

The Spirit Sword (L'Epee du spirite, 1910) by pioneer filmmaker Segundo de Chomon is a fantasy swashbuckler that opens with the arrival at an inn of a musketeer who possesses a magic sword. (weirdwildrealm.com)

Pickpock is behind bars. But more elusive than Arsène Lupin, no chain resists him and he plays with policemen like a cat with mice. After having masterfully taken them for a ride, having brought them down to an effigy, he rolls them up and throws them out the window. But the policemen come back to life and the chase goes on. Pickpock, caught a second time, locked up behind heavy bars, finds a new way of escaping and imprisoning in turn the policemen.

In a medieval palace, an astronomer with a telescope shows the king. (imdb)

A woman falls asleep in a garden, where a series of hallucinations appear.

A rehearsal of dancing heads?

By the time this short subject came out, Segundo de Chomon had bested Georges Melies at his own game. His camera magic was as fully developed as Melies. His sense of humor was sharper and his scenes had invaded the real world. Many of the shots of this split-reel short about a bizarre group of tramp musicians who disappear into and out of drums, beach umbrellas and whatnots are shot in the street and the others are on stages decorated to look realistic. (imdb)

A man in a suit and cap stops in front of the display of a bookseller, finds and flips ... "Invisible Man" by H. G. Wells! Fascinated by the subject, he buys the book and goes home with the intention to test the invisibility formula described by the author ...

The story of Tom Thumb. (imdb)

A man buys the novel The Invisible Man by "G.H. Wells" at a bookshop, and in it finds the recipe for Wells' invisibility potion. Then the opportunity makes the thief. (imdb)

Having checked into a hotel for the night, an inn guest is awakened in his sleep by two hideous monsters who terrorize him; and the room comes to life as furniture disappears into mid air, and chairs multiply themselves. (imdb)

El Hotel electrico is a fascinating early use of stop motion photography.

Remake of Melies' classic Voyage a La Lune.

A lady magician brings in a small set of statues of Greek wrestlers, who come to life

A moon-woman shakes a Pierot costume and manifests a Pierot clown. She does this four more until there are five Pierots crowded on the ledge of the moon. They fall to the earth and dance like tops turning one by one into Columbine maidens.

At its heart, this is a variation on one of Melies' most imitated -- especially by himself -- shorts: some travelers enter an abandoned house, and then, inside, everything goes all pear-shaped, as chairs vanish, the house rocks back and forth and the travelers are, eventually, scared out of their wits. (imdb)

At the beginning of this film, two women come onstage, dressed in Oriental fashion... (imdb)

It's a film in which a pickpocket constantly escapes the flics... (imdb)

Here a couple of thieves steal a street vacuum cleaner and use it to pilfer all manners of goods and people in a variety of settings, including some on the street (imdb)

What we basically have is 13-minutes of a Demonmobile driving around to various locations where other demonic forces are seen. (imdb)

Experimental color film that shows a magician and his assistant making objects and people appear and disappear. Then they stack up some blocks and a moving picture of a little girl appears on them. (imdb)

"L'Araignée d'or" ( The Golden Spider ) (1909) is an excellent example of Herr Chomón's artistry and genius, a short film that tells a fantastic and delightful story wherein a lumberjack, who shares his strange adventure with the audience by looking directly into the camera, follows four gnomes during their peculiar stroll through the forest. In a pond of water, the gnomes pick up a golden spider who has special and profit making abilities. (imdb)

When the entire kitchen staff falls asleep from exhaustion, a dwarf appears and animates various objects via stop motion -- including their hands, which he cuts off while they snooze -- to do their work. (imdb)

This French film isn't that well known today but it will mainly appeal to those film buffs with a thing for early cinema or those wanting to see some fantasy sequences but those there will probably be disappointed. The film runs just a few seconds short of four minutes as several women are dressed up as bees dancing around their hive. The "Queen Bee" goes to take a nap and she's attacked by a spider. (imdb)

Two Japanese paint a silk worm on a screen. The insect comes alive and begins to spin its cocoon. He is soon trapped in his prison silk. The cocoon is now well in sight. He suddenly opens and a beautiful butterfly takes flight. After fluttered to the right and left, the beautiful insect lands and then begin a series of transformations.

A family tries to eat dinner, but the table vanishes and reappears, changes shape and location, all in the usual manner laid down by Melies, but here copied by Segundo de Chomón.

This is not only a colored film of great beauty, but one showing a series of clever trick pictures in which great ingenuity on the part of the operator is exhibited. In the first picture a large dice rolls out on the stage out of which lightly steps a woman. After courtesying most gracefully to the audience she returns to her abode and out pops a clown who, on disappearing, is followed by different grotesque figures who come and go at will out of the same dice. (imdb)

A Segundo de Chomón trick film.

A chef comes into the kitchen and throws a lot of rags on the floor: he then casts a spell over them, and immediately they take the form of human beings, and dance a wild saraband around the place. After performing many unique tricks they disappear into space, and are replaced by a group of knives and forks, pans, kettles and spoons. These are all supplied with arms and legs, and dance around the chef as he lies on the floor. (imdb)

A frog hops around a magic fountain.

Two rag-pickers enter their hovel with their bags of scraps. After a little preliminary comedy they set up a white sheet. One of the rag-pickers now takes a handful of scraps from the bag and throws them in confusion on the sheet. They immediately begin to dance and hop about on the white background and when they stop they have made a complete likeness of the King of England.

Two grotesquely costumed Orientals seem to be coaxing a clumsy looking Chinese damsel to take a trip with them. The equipage proposed is a queer barrel and when she finally raises her unshapely self from the floor she crawls into it, while the two men mount the cask a-straddle. It promptly moves upward, and the next view shows them in mid-air. They sail around among the planets, which assume all manner of weird form.

A troupe of Japanese acrobats perform various stunts in front of the camera. (imdb)

A conjurer with white beard and turban moves about in front of a building with an elaborate facade. He spies a golden beetle, about the size of a human infant, leaning against the wall. He snatches it up, conjures a fire, and tosses the beetle in. It escapes the fire in the form of a fairy... (imdb)

Magician transforms cigars into others things

In an unnamed place, his majesty Satan is bored. Despite his servants exertions, nothing can be found to cheer him up. (imdb)

A demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him. (imdb)

Early hand-painted short of a snake charmer.

A magical woman and her magical eggs.

A rude man cursed. Pranks are played upon him.

Magical flowery frolics, similar to a Melies film.

A man can't stop yawning and it is infectious.

The legend of Ali Baba and the forty thieves: Ali Baba discovers a hidden cave where a band of thieves have stored their enormous treasure. Cassim also learns about the cave, but he is caught by the thieves and put to death. Knowing that their secret has been found out, the thieves devise a trick in an attempt to kill Ali Baba and anyone else who might know about their hiding place. (imdb)

A conductor replaces the musical notes with the heads of her musicians.

Technically, this series of disappearances, appearances and transformation which Segundo de Chomon directed, is as good as anything that Mleies did. The earlier ones, where people come out of the mirror separately, dance with each other and then go back in as as brilliantly timed tricks of masking as could be wished for. (imdb)

Sadly, only a fragment of this film seems to have survived. Fortunately, we are here to view it. I don't know about you but watching this made me want to go play outside. Maybe it was the jumping water sprites?

A woman puts a bust on a table. It comes to life, transforms into a butterfly, and produces two babies. (scifilm.org)

Funny tricks with glasses.

In an empty mansion's corridor, flames appear and form into a Mephistophelean magician who conjures,a couple of women and then a fireworks,display.

Two contortionists, dressed as devils, invade a kitchen.

Rising from a stage are two vases which separate to reveal a female dancer behind each of the vases. They create magical circles of flowers from which other women emerge. The dancers construct an elegant floral display, in the middle of which a miniature dancer performs. Another circle of flowers is brought forward on the stage, toward the camera, and in the circle are shown a series of women. The original pair of dancers conclude by twirling their parasols.

A hand tinted trick-film inspired by the Master George Méliès. Under the wand of a magician, flowers fill up a hall which disappears under the pile. From these roses come women who, in turn, are transformed into multi-coloured bundles and firey rain. A woman appears in a shell of mother-of-pearl and disappears at the command of the magician. (BFI)

Three young children set up a table, and on the table is placed a miniature stage. The stage curtain opens, a carpet appears, and then the carpet unrolls by itself. Two puppet figures then come out and begin to perform a series of routines. (imdb)

A man is trying to shave, but grotesque faces keep appearing in his mirror.

Diving "tricks"

A sorcerer draws signs on the sand making charming young women. (imdb)

TRICK. A young peasant leaves his cottage after a quarrel with his wife, and meets a witch. She takes him to a cavern, where after a series of encounters with goblins and other elusive creatures, he is presented with a choice of beautiful women of various races. Finally the witch makes his wife appear. He is overjoyed to see her. The happy couple are seen re-united in their cottage. (ftvdb.bfi.org.uk)

Three friends go on a trip and decided to rest at an abandoned house. Everything seems pretty normal until really weird things start to happen. (imdb)

The Electric Current - A grocer electrifies his goods to prevent thieves from running off with his ware. Unfortunately, the current can't tell the difference between thieves and other people...

An artist is painting the portrait of a young woman dressed in a country costume in his attic studio. The landlord demands the rent, but the artist has no money and forces the landlord out. The model tries to comfort him, but he throws her out too. Dancing safes appear and he takes bags of gold coins out of them. A woman fairy appears and she transports them to a palace. Soldiers march in and a troupe of women dancers perform.

A beautiful seductive fairy makes gentle winged creatures appear. (imdb)

A troubadour performs tricks in which he duplicates himself.

All kinds of visual tricks: transformations, apparitions, sudden disappearances.

The Marriage of Princess Ena and Alphonse XIII, King of Spain

A family living in poverty, in a tiny house with no furniture. When mama goes to sleep, the youngsters head out to rustle up some firewood. Apparently that's illegal, so some forest rangers seize them and the wood to bring to a well-dressed man.

A clown creates a giant version of his face, and then retrieves two miniature versions of himself from his luggage.

This early Segundo de Chomon short does what Melies never did in his many elaborate trick films, despite his history as a stage magician -- show the sort of close-up magic that stage magicians hold is the toughest sort of magicianry to perform, the sort that can be done for an audience of one sitting right next to you. (imdb)

In structure it was a common enough type of film: a chase slapstick. In this case, it's about a farmer who puts up a notice who is looking for a wife, and is soon fleeing from a dozen women. (imdb)

A trick film using the reverse effect.

Early short showing the titular park in around 2 minutes.

A reception in honour of his majesty Alphonse XIII in Barcelona.

A short drama featuring three fictitious scenes of Spanish War Independence.

A bat turns into a woman who then performs a serpentine dance.

Segundo de Chomón films a belly dancer.

An old woman is invited in to the farmers' home. She then reveals herself to be a magic fairy and makes the snow disappear and flowers magically appear. (imdb)