From fake news in 1902 to livestreaming a man asleep – and everything in between, the big picture gets a bit lost
Although being distributed in the UK with the title Fantastic Machine, this documentary about the camera through history originally had the much more prolix, pretentious and charming moniker And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine. The line is a quote attributed to Edward VII who is said to have reacted with awe when he saw a film of his own coronation – although the footage in question was not of his actual coronation but filmed by French director Georges Méliès with French actors in a Paris studio in advance, the first example of “fake news”.
That is fitting because here directors Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck explore the camera and the moving image’s ability to dazzle, deceive and delight through history. That said, their thematic intent seems to be a slippery thing as the film shifts its attention across all manner of phenomena and subjects. Sometimes it feels like a cross between a film studies lecture and what happens when you leave YouTube to keep autoplaying while the all-powerful algorithm suggests more and more content.
