In a Hurry to Catch a Train (Monsieur et Madame sont pressées)

France, 1901. Director Ferdinand Zecca, Pathé Frères.

In Ferdinand Zecca's In a Hurry to Catch a Train, a direct variation on Méliès' earlier How He Missed His Train (1901), a man and his wife unsuccessfully try to get dressed. The comical innovation Zecca brings to an old gag consists primarily in the confusion and misplacement of gendered clothes. Importantly, as Méliès, he goes beyond animating clothing by virtue of filming it on a person's body. Instead, he uses the clothes' motion (appearances, disappearances, reappearances, movements around the set) to spectacular and awe-inspiring ends.

For further reading, see Lynda Nead’s essay Georges Méliès’s Le déshabillage impossible and Ferdinand Zecca’s Monsieur et Madame sont pressées.

Past screenings

Between Stigma and Enigma – London
Tuesday 16 May 2006, 20:30 | ICA Cinema

The 1st Fashion in Film Festival – Prague
Thursday 28 October 2006, 20:30 | Kino Světozor

The 1st Fashion in Film Festival – New York
Saturday 17 March 2007, 14:00 | Museum of the Moving Image

The 1st Fashion in Film Festival – Arnhem
Sunday 17 June 2007, 14:00 | Focus