Wonderful character development!

Perfect cast and a good story

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This one of two amazing shorts that I stumbled upon and they absolutely blew me away, as I didn't know any such films existed. In 1905, long before the first talking full-length film, THE JAZZ SINGER, was released, Alice Guy experimented with talking (yes, I said talking) films! I had thought the earliest talking films were experimental ones with Eddie Cantor done in 1922--but this was 17 years earlier! What makes these films even more enjoyable is that the folks who put this on DVD made sure the film and accompanying record were in sync--something that wasn't always the case when the earliest sound films were shown.The film consists of a French cabaret singer, Dranem, singing a little song as a motionless camera recorded him. This short and "Five O'Clock Tea" were both made with Dranem and feature the same set, so it's easy to mix them up with the other. The only major difference, other than the actual song, as that at the beginning of "Five O'Clock" Dranem's voice breaks badly--as well as later in the film.