Tunnelling the English Channel

Tunneling the English Channel
Directed by Georges Méliès
Release dates
  • 1 July 1907[1]
Running time
 23 minutes
Country France
Language Silent

Tunneling the English Channel (French: Le Tunnel sous la Manche ou le Cauchemar anglo-français) is a 1907 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès.[2] The plot follows King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under the English Channel.

It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 936–950 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a fantaisie burlesque à grand spectacle en 30 tableaux.[2] Méliès appears in the film as the engineer who presents the blueprints for the tunnel.[2] Fernande Albany, an actress who also appeared in Méliès's The Impossible Voyage, An Adventurous Automobile Trip, and The Conquest of the Pole, plays the leader of the Salvation Army parade.[3] King Edward was played by a wash-house attendant who closely resembled the monarch, reprising a role he had played five years before in Méliès's film The Coronation of Edward VII.[4]

American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum named it as one of his 100 favorite films.[5] The academician Elizabeth Ezra called it "one of Méliès's wittiest and most engaging films."[6]

References

  1. ↑ The World at War - FRANCE - La Belle Epoque - Part 3 - 1905 - 1909 1905
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 219, ISBN 9782732437323
  3. ↑ Bertrand, Aude (2010), Georges Méliès et les professionnels de son temps, Université de Lyon, pp. 114–115, retrieved 13 February 2015
  4. ↑ Ezra, Elizabeth (2000), Georges Méliès, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 66–67, ISBN 0719053951
  5. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2004), Essential Cinema, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-7840-3
  6. ↑ Ezra 2000, p. 136

External links