Le Fantôme du Moulin Rouge

Made immediately after the experimental short Entr'acte, this uses many of the same devices - superimposition, trick effects, comic occurrences caused by 'magic' - but harnesses them to a much more conventional narrative. A young man, unsuccessful in love, manages to leave his body and tours Paris, disembodied and invisible, playing practical jokes: a row of coats walks off from a hotel cloakroom; an unattended taxi drives itself away; a row of top hats appears on the pavement. This reconciliation of romantic comedy and surrealist gags, using fantasy to present avant-garde motifs, is typical of Clair, as is the largely irrelevant but utterly inspired 'Eccentrics' Bar' sequence.