The India Rubber Head (1901) on Netflix
NR19013mComedy
An apothecary in his laboratory places a living copy of his own head on a table and inflates it with a bellows until it turns gigantic. His assistant wants a turn.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.1/103,604 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
An apothecary has planned a novel experiment. On the table of his laboratory lies a living copy of his own head. He fits a rubber tube and a pair of bellows to it and blows; the head swells larger and larger until it reaches enormous size, pulling faces and laughing along with him. Fearing that it may burst, he opens a valve on the tube, and the head shrinks back to the size it started at. He calls his assistant in to show him what he has discovered. The assistant seizes the bellows, eager to try the trick for himself.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The India Rubber Head (1901)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To film his own head swelling to giant size in The Man with the Rubber Head, Georges Méliès shot the laboratory action first, then sat in a pulley-controlled chair on a purpose-built ramp, moving gradually toward the stationary camera while an assistant refocused the lens in real time to keep his face sharp.
- Méliès recorded the expanding head onto the same piece of film negative as the laboratory action, making a multiple exposure that superimposed the head on the blank area of the set, and timed the chair's back-and-forth movement on the ramp to match the pre-recorded action.
