Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus

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.

Despite the English title ('The Mysterious Island'), this short fantasy is not based on the Verne novel but is rather a stagy recreation of the story of Calypso and Ulysses (although the film ends up being a mix of tales from the Odyssey). Briefly, the great Greek hero falls sleeps in front of a cave on Calypso's Island. Nymphs appear who seduce him with music and flowers awaiting the appearance of Calypso but when he tries to follow her into the grotto, he is stopped by the giant cyclops Polyphemus. Eventually Ulysses gruesomely thrusts a spear into the monster's single eye and escapes. The simple film is shot on a single set but the double exposures used to depict the cyclops are quite effective for the time. Very good for what it is: an early trick film from one of most imaginative of the early filmmakers.

This isn't quite how Homer wrote his epic as Georges Méliès uses a little creative licence to tell us of Ulysses, returning from the Trojan war, being lured onto the island of the temptress Calypso where he encounters not just a collection of serenading nymphs but also the legendary cyclops Polyphemus. The betting isn't on his escaping but can he prevail? It's barely four minutes long but the last minute or so is worth a glance as we see a couple of really quite impressive visual effects emanating from a cave. Otherwise it's all rather theatrical in appearance but filmed in a remarkably decent quality.

In response to what the other reviewer said, I'd like to point out that the earliest adaptation of the Odyssey I've seen was made two years before, in 1902's "Le Jugement de Paris" which only briefly recreates a short scene from the beginning of the book. This three-minute film is a single scene representation of the story of Ulysses. I don't know the story myself, so I'm guessing that this brief interpretation is only part of it.

The film begins with a realistic-looking (and quite beautiful) set of the entrance to a cave. Ulysses (played by Méliès, I think) enters the scene and falls asleep only to be discovered by some nymphs of the goddess Calypso who dance around him. Then, Calypso herself enters and lures Ulysses to the entrance of the cave, when she disappears. Ulysses then is stopped by a huge cyclops who 'threatens' to kill him so he has to fight the monster. The special effects here are extremely obvious that they just superimposed the actor's head onto the set (which could be understandable due to the limited technology at the time). However, what's worse is that while the cyclops does have a single eye, the other two actual eyes of the actor are just closed and it looks so obvious that it just looks like a huge guy's head with his eyes closed. I'm sure even at the time they could have found a way to create a more convincing effect. As it is, the sets and costumes look great and it's interesting to think why Méliès decided to adapt this particular story.

L'île de Calypso (1905)

*** (out of 4)

aka The Mysterious Island

Ulysses 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.