Artist and the Dummy (1900) User Reviews

Who are you calling 'dummy'?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 3 December 2010]

A very simple gag film: a young lady substitutes herself for a dummy in order to play a practical joke on an artist. This one-minute film could have been made by almost anyone at this point of time -- and it was made, in varying forms, by several people.

Nonetheless, and not simply because it was done by Georges Méliès, it does have a couple of interesting points. One is the later standard silent film trope that because the film is silent, the world inside the frame is likewise silent. The young woman manages to move the mannequin, which is as large as she is and substitute herself in its place without making any noise to alert the object of her practical joke.

Enjoyable minute

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 6 January 2016]

"L'artiste et le mannequin" or "Artist and the Dummy" is a French black-and-white silent film from the year 1900 that runs for slightly over a minute. It is a good example of why Georges Méliès was ahead of everybody during that very early era of film. The set decoration is really outstanding and the action is absolutely sufficient, even convincing, for such a brief film. It is basically a prank that consists of two parts. Shame on you if you fool me once, shame on me if you fool me twice. I thought this was funny and entertaining. Everything I hoped for in here and I must say this is easily among the better works I have seen from Méliès. Many comedies these days have not as much fun in 90 minutes as this film has in 70 seconds. Definitely worth checking out. I recommend it.

Turning the Tables

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 11 November 2017]

An artist sets up a realistic mannequin to paint its portrait. While his back is turned a man comes in and has an identically dressed woman take the dummy's place. What ensues is quite disappointing. The bit has the potential for some real comedy, but it fizzles at the end. The artist does think he has the last laugh, so that works.

Boy, did they have a big racket going!

[Tornado_Sam · 16 January 2018]

An artist (Georges Méliès himself) is going to paint a portrait of a dummy. No, he wasn't going to paint an idiot, it was a mannequin. Anyway, there's a young woman who wants to fool the guy and substitutes herself with the dummy. Unfortunately, the artist is such a dummy himself he can't see it coming...until it's too late.

Considering it's a pretty basic gag, the execution is very good for a single joke and makes it work as well as it could. The main reason this short isn't funny today is because...well, nobody laughs at artists attacking mannequins anymore. Méliès knew audiences of the time would enjoy it, but now it comes off as unfunny despite good execution. I'll still give it credit as good comedy for 1900, because it works well for the time, but the piece is too dated now to be funny so it's mainly of interest for people like me who enjoy these early movies.