A poor man asks for alms and the well dressed man opens his suitcase and produces a table laden with food, a chef to gratify his particular demands and even a new set of clothes.
Although this may appear to be a knock off of a Melies picture, Alice Guy, who may have been not only the first woman director, but the first motion picture director, does things differently. Her actors behave in a less flamboyant fashion and the attitudes evinced are distinctly middle class. Most important, while Melies shot almost all his movies in the carefully controlled environment of his film studio in Montreuil, Madame Guy shot this one out of doors. This caused a lot of technical problems, including issues of lighting, but also yielded a much more realistic-looking movie.
Although this may appear to be a knock off of a Melies picture, Alice Guy, who may have been not only the first woman director, but the first motion picture director, does things differently. Her actors behave in a less flamboyant fashion and the attitudes evinced are distinctly middle class. Most important, while Melies shot almost all his movies in the carefully controlled environment of his film studio in Montreuil, Madame Guy shot this one out of doors. This caused a lot of technical problems, including issues of lighting, but also yielded a much more realistic-looking movie.
