Hitchcoc This was so much fun. Melies is a music teacher/conductor. He comes on stage, followed by his musicians/singers. He carries around a huge treble clef. Once the dancing has stopped, he throws the clef in the air and it sticks on a giant music staff. Now he does the wackiest thing. He begins to throw heads (his head) up to the music staff and they form notes. He also throws the stems up. I'm not sure if he is a half note or a quarter note. But once complete, the singers turn to the audience and begin to use the French version of do-re-mi on cards in front of them. And then they stop and exit the stage in a frenetic dance. It is so much fun.

Red-Barracuda Le mélomane is another of Georges Méliès trick films. In it he plays a musical instructor who teaches a group of female musicians in his own eccentric manner. In this case by using several Méliès heads to illustrate the notes. It's typically insane stuff from the master of innovation.It recalls some of the ideas he invented in previous films. It's almost like a collision of L'homme orchestre and Un homme de têtes. It has the musical theme of the former and the multiple Méliès heads of the latter. So it doesn't really bring anything especially new to the table but it is well crafted nevertheless. Perhaps the oddest aspect about this production is that it appears to be a silent movie with a musical theme. Not exactly the most obvious combination it has to be said. The result is another charming oddity from this cinematic pioneer.

JoeytheBrit Melies had to be the most imaginative and creative of the early filmmakers as this surreal short shows. The master film magician appears in the role of music teacher who, chancing upon lines of telegraph wires in the country while out with his class, creates lines of music by detaching his head and throwing it up into the wires to form that little dot at the bottom of a music note. A new head instantly appears on his shoulders and Melies throws this one into the wires as well - a trick he repeats until a full line of music is created. We can only wonder where Melies got his ideas from - and why such a creative genius found it impossible to adapt to the increasing sophistication of film-making.

tavm This is one of Melies' most unusual shorts in which he portrays a music teacher who is trying to teach his students some harmony by having various heads of his representing notes on a large series of lines above him. I've always wondered how those various heads keep popping up from his body like that. In the documentary film, The Magic of Melies, I found out Georges stops film in camera, covers his head with a black sheet to match the background, then starts film again. Of course, any technical problems are fixed in editing. The way short ends with all those musical head-notes flying around is one of the most awesome sights I've seen in silent movies. By all means, seek The Music Lover out!