Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

People are voting emotionally.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

In The One-Man Band, Georges Melies uses multiple exposure photography to show himself as several band members playing different instruments in unison. Melies also continues to use jump-cut editing to make objects appear and disappear (the chairs in this case) and advance the action. The work it must have taken Melies to synchronize the footage must have been extraordinary. Just as Melies makes the likenesses of himself as band members appear, he makes them disappear also echoing the many other previous films he's done with creating a scenario and then dismantling it in the context of a sole creator/creative force. *** of 4 stars.

It's hard to believe that this masterpiece of special effects was filmed in 1900. Georges Melies clones himself six times, transforming into a conductor and six members of an orchestra. The seven of him perform together, then coalesce into the one. At the time, all special effects work had to be done in the camera by use of shutters, back- cranking, and re-cranking. Melies had to carefully coordinate his actions, timing them perfectly, or the entire shot would be ruined. Kudos are due as well to the cameraman, who had to be metronome-steady in order to make the effect work.Surely this little film served as inspiration for Buster Keaton's "The Playhouse".

One-Man Band, The (1900) *** (out of 4) aka L'Homme orchestre This here is one of director Melies best known and loved films. Melies plays a band leader and we see his spirits or doubles, come to life and make for an entire band. Buster Keaton would somewhat redo this film two decades later in The Play House and in my opinion it can't hold a candle to this film. The special effects hold up quite well and the way the spirits come to be is nicely done. Melies was certainly a genius and this is one of the highlights of his career.

Director Méliès later went on to make several other shorts where he acted and replicated himself (in two cases, popping off his head and using it to make a whole bunch of singing heads), but I think this is one of the earliest of this type of film (the first coming in 1898). But, instead of pulling off his head, he is able replicate himself many times until he is an entire performing ensemble. While compared to later trick cinematography this isn't a great special effect, for its day it was amazing and quite funny. For a similar type experience (though of course a lot better because of advancements in camera-work), see Buster Keaton's THE PERFORMANCE--where he not only plays all the performers, but all the members of the audience (including the women)!If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.