After the Ball, the Bath

This is pretty funny. It's very short -- hardly more than a minute -- but entertaining in its own self-conscious way. A middle-aged woman shaped like a bottle of chianti walks into a room and, with the help of a maid, removes all of her clothes and takes a bath in what looks like black sand. The set is a clumsily painted attempt at nouveau art.

The woman never turns towards the camera after doffing her many garments but there's an untempting look at her naked behind, resembling a matched set of butcher block tables, before the maid drapes her in a large towel. Before they leave, the maid turns to look at the camera and giggles. Good old Méliès. Leave it to him to do something so silly that you get a kick out of watching it.

After the Ball (1897)

** (out of 4)

aka Apres le bal

As the title suggests, a woman returns home from a ball and begins to get undressed with the help of her servant. I guess this film would enter the genre of those early films that tried to show a little bit of nudity for the male viewers. There's some nudity in this film that will certainly make some viewers raise their eyes but this did happen in quite a few shorts of this era. There's really nothing here that stands out as being a film from Melies but this works best as a history lesson of early nudity on film. It's also worth noting that when you watch the film pay attention to the servant towards the end of the movie as she is looking off screen and talking, apparently the director, asking if he has finished filming.

I was very surprised to learn today that the first mainstream film featuring nudity was done by the great Georges Méliès! What makes it even more interesting is that after making this movie, the director married the woman who exposed herself to the camera!

The plot is practically non-existent...which is not unusual for 1897. A woman is going to take a bath and her servant helps her undress and pours water over her. All you see is the naked lady from behind...but I am sure audiences of the day would have been scandalized....especially here in the States where I wonder if it was ever shown.

If you are curious, the film is on YouTube...but it is not very salacious and it's very short as well.

When the photographic camera was invented, it was not long before presumably a man got his girlfriend or wife to take her clothes off in order to take nude pictures.

Georges Melies 'After the Bath' is regarded as the first film containing nudity.

A maid prepares the bath for a lady (Mrs Melies, no less) who takes off her various garments and boy there are lots of them before she goes into the tin bath.

As the lady turns back we see her posterior although I do not understand why the maid throws some soil on her. Given the rather cheeky look the maid gives to the camera I cannot help but think that Melies was flirting with the boundaries of erotica.

1897. The very first nude scene ever filmed came out in that year, presented in this Méliès classic. Some call it, the first adult movie ever made. I wonder if there were outcries or any kind of negative reaction, censorship or something when of its release, there isn't much that can be found about it.

Here, more than a hundred years later it seems that cinema haven't evolved in terms of how nudity is presented and viewed by general public. Sure, nudity scenes are far more present and far more visible than what can be seen in "Après Le Bal" ("After the Ball"), sometimes showed as an art, other times merely exploitative, but it's always an issue that brings controversy, to some. And Méliès film is a perfect example that illustrates that a nude scene, actors naked on screen, shouldn't be a matter of negative discussions. They must be appreciated, seen in the same light as we see ourselves in our daily routine as we do, it's our body and there's nothing wrong with it.

The movie: a maid prepares the bath for his lady boss, who undresses and enters in a tin tub while the servant washes her. A simple action in the 1800's, a very natural thing. The cleverness comes from the way it was filmed, a behind perspective rather than frontal exposures, perhaps the main reason why this film escaped from harsh criticism.

Georges Méliès was a genius. He could take us to the moon, present devils and angels, wonderful magicians, men with floating heads and give us the human body as it is. That must have been a dazzling magic trick to many in the audience back in the day. 9/10