Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus (1905)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A Brilliant Conflict

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Odysseus (Ulysses) is on an island and falls asleep. While a sleep, some maidens (sirens?) come upon him. They dance, play music, throw flowers on him (lotuses?). He awakens and they run away, except for one (Circe?). He pleads with her for some reason; maybe it's romantic; maybe he's under the spell of the flowers. Who should show up but a cyclops. The weak thing is that he has an eye on his forehead, but he has two other eyes. They are just closed. All we have is a head and Ulysses sticks a spear in his eye as all manner of ooze comes out of it. The story lacks any suspense and no real defense from the cyclops. Could have been much better.

Yes I'm reviewing yet another Georges Melies film. This one is Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus(1905). It's the first ever film adaptation of The Odessy that I've ever heard of. This one is just about the famous part in the epic where Odesseyues is in the cave with Polyphemus the cyclops. It's an incredibly short adaptation, but then again this was 1905 when most films never got longer than 12 minutes. This time Odesseyues (I mean Ulysseus) is by himself. Also it doesn't even look like he's inside the cave at all. He does however stab Polyphemus in the eye like all the other versions. So it does have some relation. Overall if you are for whatever reason curious about an early adaptation of the Odessy (like I was) go see it. I saw it on YouTube by the way.

I am not 100% familiar with the story of Ulysses, so if you are a complete nut about mythology (like my oldest daughter), you'll probably get a bit more out this film than I did---but I was really impressed by it--even if it's very old fashioned compared to modern films. Still, the techniques, for their day, were exceptional--and cool! The film begins with Ulysses on an island and a bunch of nymphs dance about him. He awakens and is confronted by the ENORMOUS head of a cyclops (what happened to the rest of the body?!). He then proceeds to do battle with it--driving his sword into the eye of the cyclops--and all sort of disgusting pus-like stuff comes dribbling out and I had a great time watching! Gross AND pretty cool--especially since the enormous head effect was exceptional for 1905--way ahead of its time. Well worth seeing.

L'île de Calypso (1905) *** (out of 4) aka The Mysterious IslandUlysses finds himself on a strange island where he passes out shortly after getting there. A bunch of nymphs then do a dance around him and offer him to their goddess Calypso. Ulysses awakes and goes after the woman but he's stopped by a cyclops who he must do battle against. Okay, this is a pretty interesting little film for a number of reasons but the biggest is the inclusion of the cyclops. I'm not sure if this was the first time one was put in a movie but I really loved how it's used here. It's funny because when we see the creature we only get to see its head and the strange thing is that the director did a good job building up its fake one eye yet he left the actors other two (real) eyes clearly visible and only had the actor keep them closed. A great touch is when the cyclops gets an arrow through the eye and it starts leaking white liquid. Quite violent for 1905! The film uses narration (on DVD in French or English) to tell its story and it's probably best that you use it even with the Music Only track. Melies does a good job playing Ulysses so fans will enjoy seeing him here.