| Adventures of William Tell | |
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Screenshot from the film |
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| Directed by | Georges Méliès |
| Release date(s) | 1898 |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
Adventures of William Tell (French: Guillaume Tell et le clown; Star Film Catalogue no. 159.) is a 1898 French short black-and-white silent trick film, directed by Georges Méliès, featuring a clown trying to shoot fruit of the head of a dummy which comes to life. The film is, "a knockabout farce based on jump-cuts and the timely substitution of dummies for real bodies," with, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "a level of onscreen violence not previously seen in a surviving Méliès film," which marks, "a bridge between the onstage effects of the famous Théâtre du Grand Guignol and countless later outpourings of comically extreme screen violence as seen in everything from Tex Avery cartoons to the early films of Sam Raimi."[1]
Contents |
A clown constructs a mannequin of William Tell and places a piece of fruit on its head but the mannequin comes to life and hurls the fruit at the clown before he can take aim with his crossbow. The clown check removes and replaces the mannequin’s arm and head, at which point it comes to life again, tramples the clown and makes its escape, with the now irate clown in pursuit.
Given its age, this short film is available to freely download from the Internet.
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