Directed by: George Albert Smith
Although transitioning between scenes using a dissolve was already clearly established and used (numerous times) by the likes of Georges Méliès in Cendrillon / Cinderella (1900), this film used a more primitive version of it for a different effect – by letting the first shot slip out of focus and the second one back into focus, it visually communicated waking up from a dream state. Film’s visual vocabulary increases! The technique also works in relation to the story, visually contrasting the two similar shots for comic effect.
(The film was remade by Ferdinand Zecca in 1901 as Rêve et réalité / Dream and Reality.)
Bibliography
Brooke, M. (n.d.) ‘Let Me Dream Again (1900)’, BFI screenonline. Available at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/443139/index.html [8 January 2022].
IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Let Me Dream Again (1900)’, IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000313/ [8 January 2022].
JEC (2021). ‘Let Me Dream Again (1900)’, A Cinema History. Available at: http://www.acinemahistory.com/2021/02/let-me-dream-again-1900.html?view=classic [8 January 2022].
Reel Lessons 