i must have seen a different film!!

A different way of telling a story

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

'Neptune's Daughters (1900)' was produced by prolific early American director Frederick S. Armitage for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. The short film is notable for its early use of superimposition, double-printing images from 'Ballet of the Ghosts (1899)' over an ocean landscape from 'Sad Sea Waves (1897).' The result is that the four woman, draped in white, appear to emerge from the ocean like ghosts, before breaking into dance on top of the water surface. Armitage made a few of these short films – including 'Davey Jones' Locker (1900)' and 'A Nymph of the Waves (1900)' – and this is probably the least visually impressive of the three, though all are worthwhile for anybody interested in the early development of cinema's visual effects. 'Neptune's Daughters' can be found in the "Unseen Cinema" box-set, in the volume "Viva La Dance: The Beginnings of Cine-Dance."