Up-to-Date Clothes Cleaning (1908) User Reviews

Watch Out There!

[boblipton · 4/10 · 16 March 2008]

As much as I adore Melies' work, the fantasy, the joy of performance, the sheer thought that had not Griffith come along and made such a strong show of Englishman George Smith's film grammar that we might today be looking at movies based on Melies' work.... well, when he wasn't playing to his strengths he was fairly weak. This is one of his weaker efforts directed without the loving precision and vivacity of his own performances: when one of the performers leans against a backdrop, you see it shimmy like the cardboard it is.

Gaumont and Pathe were moving in on him in France and this was the year Griffith would begin to turn the entire industry upside down. Soon that cardboard would rip.

This is one of the many previously lost or infrequently seen Melies pictures that have been made available by Serge Bromberg, David Shepherd and a myriad of other hands in the newly issued DVD set GEORGES MELIES: FIRST WIZARD OF CINEMA. Required viewing for anyone interested in the history of movies ..... and a lot of fun.

Changing Times for Melies

[Michael_Elliott · 19 August 2012]

Sideshow Wrestlers (1908)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

aka Le Conseil du Pipelet

This here is a pretty weak film from Georges Melies. What we basically have is an opening scene with people doing something that I'm not quite sure of and then we flash to a carnival setting where we see a couple unfunny and badly staged wrestling matches. Clocking in close to 9-minutes, it's clear that outside forces, meaning other directors, were forcing Melies to change his game plan as the typical three or four minute movie wasn't going to work anymore. When you go through the Flicker Alley set and are able to watch the films in the order that they were released, it comes quite clear that these "added" bits of scenes that make no sense are probably just there to fatten up the running time. I guess you can't blame Melies for having to change but it's clear that it doesn't work here. The magic, wonder and passion that is in most of the director's work is completely missing here and we're left with a very boring film that only Melies die hards should even bother with. Even the sets look rather cheap.

Nonsense

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 20 November 2017]

The story line here is pretty much non-existent. Some people in some kind of business keep sending people with laundry upstairs. Then others come in and I'm not sure what they want. Eventually, there is a sideshow and there are wrestlers. These wrestlers challenge the public and then pretty much lose. There is no plot. The matches are silly and not funny. There is some guy who wins and mugs for the camera but his presence makes no sense.