Georges Méliès
Encyclopedia
Georges Méliès full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French
filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema
. He was very innovative in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the stop trick
, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures
, time-lapse
photography, dissolve
s, and hand-painted color in his films. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through cinematography
, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the First "Cinemagician."
, where his family manufactured shoe
s. He had two older brothers, Henri and Gaston
. Before making films, he was a stage magician at the Theatre Robert-Houdin
.
In 1895, he became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera. In 1897, he established a studio on a rooftop property in Montreuil
. Actors performed in front of a painted set as inspired by the conventions of magic and musical theater. He directed 531 films between 1896 and 1914, ranging in length from one to forty minutes. In subject matter, these films are often similar to the magic theater shows that Méliès had been doing, containing "tricks" and impossible events, such as objects disappearing or changing size. These early special effects films were essentially devoid of plot. The special effects were used only to show what was possible, rather than enhance the overall film.
Méliès's early films were mostly composed of single in-camera effects, used for the entirety of the film. For example, after experimenting with multiple exposure, Méliès created his film The One Man Band in which he played seven different characters simultaneously.
His most famous film is A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) made in 1902, which includes the celebrated scene in which a spaceship hits the eye of the man in the moon. Also famous is The Impossible Voyage
(Le voyage à travers l'impossible) from 1904. Both of these films are about strange voyages, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne
. These are considered to be some of the most important early science fiction film
s, although their approach is closer to fantasy. In addition, horror cinema
can be traced back to Georges Méliès's Le Manoir du diable
(1896). A print of the film was acquired by Thomas Edison
, who then duplicated and distributed it in the United States, where it achieved financial success; however, Edison did not pay any revenues to Méliès.
In 1913 Georges Méliès' film company was forced into bankruptcy
by the large French and American studios, and his company was bought out of receivership by Pathé Frères. Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, and with some 500 films recorded on cellulose, the French Army seized most of this stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. Many of the other films were sold to be recycled into new film. As a result many of his films do not exist today.
After being driven out of business, Méliès became a toy salesman at the Montparnasse station
, with the assistance of funds collected by other filmmakers. Eventually Georges Méliès was awarded the Légion d'honneur
(Legion of honor) which was presented to him in 1931 by Louis Lumière. In 1932, the Cinema Society arranged a place for Méliès at La Maison du Retrait du Cinéma, the film industry's retirement home, in Orly.
Méliès died in Paris on January 21st, 1938 — just hours after the passing of Émile Cohl
, another great French film pioneer — and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery
.
His short film Cleopatra
(1899) was believed to be a lost film
until a copy was discovered in 2005 in Paris
.
Georges Méliès directed hundreds of films including the following. For a full filmography see Georges Méliès filmography
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. He was very innovative in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the stop trick
Stop trick
A stop trick is a film special effect. It occurs when an object is filmed, then while the camera is off, the object is moved out of sight of the camera, then the camera is turned back on. When the film is watched it thus seems to the viewer that object disappears.Georges Méliès accidentally...
, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
, time-lapse
Time-lapse
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
photography, dissolve
Dissolve (film)
In the post-production process of film editing and video editing, a dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. The terms fade-out and fade-in and are used to describe a transition to and from a blank image. This is in contrast to a cut where there is no such transition. A dissolve...
s, and hand-painted color in his films. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the First "Cinemagician."
Biography
Méliès was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where his family manufactured shoe
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
s. He had two older brothers, Henri and Gaston
Gaston Méliès
Gaston Méliès was the brother of the more-famous French film director Georges Méliès. He also produced and directed a large number of early films in the United States....
. Before making films, he was a stage magician at the Theatre Robert-Houdin
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin
Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin was a French magician. He is widely considered the father of the modern style of conjuring.-Early life and entrance into conjuring:...
.
In 1895, he became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera. In 1897, he established a studio on a rooftop property in Montreuil
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis
Montreuil is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is the third most populous suburb of Paris...
. Actors performed in front of a painted set as inspired by the conventions of magic and musical theater. He directed 531 films between 1896 and 1914, ranging in length from one to forty minutes. In subject matter, these films are often similar to the magic theater shows that Méliès had been doing, containing "tricks" and impossible events, such as objects disappearing or changing size. These early special effects films were essentially devoid of plot. The special effects were used only to show what was possible, rather than enhance the overall film.
Méliès's early films were mostly composed of single in-camera effects, used for the entirety of the film. For example, after experimenting with multiple exposure, Méliès created his film The One Man Band in which he played seven different characters simultaneously.
His most famous film is A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) made in 1902, which includes the celebrated scene in which a spaceship hits the eye of the man in the moon. Also famous is The Impossible Voyage
The Impossible Voyage
The Impossible Voyage is a 1904 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. The film's runtime is about 24 minutes , and was probably inspired by Melies' successful earlier film Le Voyage dans la Lune...
(Le voyage à travers l'impossible) from 1904. Both of these films are about strange voyages, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
. These are considered to be some of the most important early science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
s, although their approach is closer to fantasy. In addition, horror cinema
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
can be traced back to Georges Méliès's Le Manoir du diable
Le Manoir du diable
The Haunted Castle is a 1896 three-minute-long French film and directorial debut of Georges Méliès and number 78-80 on the Star Films catalog. The film contained many traditional pantomime elements and was intentionally meant to amuse people, rather than frighten them...
(1896). A print of the film was acquired by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
, who then duplicated and distributed it in the United States, where it achieved financial success; however, Edison did not pay any revenues to Méliès.
In 1913 Georges Méliès' film company was forced into bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
by the large French and American studios, and his company was bought out of receivership by Pathé Frères. Méliès did not grasp the value of his films, and with some 500 films recorded on cellulose, the French Army seized most of this stock to be melted down into boot heels during World War I. Many of the other films were sold to be recycled into new film. As a result many of his films do not exist today.
After being driven out of business, Méliès became a toy salesman at the Montparnasse station
Gare Montparnasse
Paris Montparnasse is one of the six large terminus railway stations of Paris, located in the Montparnasse area in the XIVe arrondissement. The station was opened in 1840, and rebuilt completely in 1969...
, with the assistance of funds collected by other filmmakers. Eventually Georges Méliès was awarded the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(Legion of honor) which was presented to him in 1931 by Louis Lumière. In 1932, the Cinema Society arranged a place for Méliès at La Maison du Retrait du Cinéma, the film industry's retirement home, in Orly.
Méliès died in Paris on January 21st, 1938 — just hours after the passing of Émile Cohl
Émile Cohl
Émile Cohl , born Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet, was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian".-Biography:Émile's father Elie was a rubber salesman, and his mother, Emilie...
, another great French film pioneer — and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
.
His short film Cleopatra
Cléopâtre (1899 film)
Cléopâtre is a short silent film about resurrecting the mummy of Cleopatra.Released in 1899, Cléopâtre was one of the earliest horror films ever made. It was written and directed by Georges Méliès....
(1899) was believed to be a lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
until a copy was discovered in 2005 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Filmography
Georges Méliès filmography
These are the films directed by Georges Méliès. According to the Internet Movie Database, Méliès directed 555 films between 1896 and 1914....
.
- The Bewitched House (1896)
- Batteuse à vapeurBatteuse à vapeurBatteuse à vapeur is an 1896 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by French magician Georges Méliès. No surviving footage of this film is known to exist and it is therefore presumed to be lost....
(1896) - Bébé et fillettesBébé et fillettesBébé et fillettes is an 1896 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by French magician Georges Méliès. This film is now classified as lost and no surviving footage is known to exist....
(1896) - Le BivouacLe BivouacLe Bivouac is an 1896 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by French magician Georges Méliès....
(1896) - The Vanishing Lady / Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert-Houdin (1896)
- The House of the DevilLe Manoir du diableThe Haunted Castle is a 1896 three-minute-long French film and directorial debut of Georges Méliès and number 78-80 on the Star Films catalog. The film contained many traditional pantomime elements and was intentionally meant to amuse people, rather than frighten them...
/ Le Manoir du Diable (1896) - Boulevard des ItaliensBoulevard des Italiens (film)Boulevard des Italiens is an 1896 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by French magician Georges Méliès. The film consists of a short sequence recording life on the streets of Paris....
(1896) - CléopâtreCléopâtre (1899 film)Cléopâtre is a short silent film about resurrecting the mummy of Cleopatra.Released in 1899, Cléopâtre was one of the earliest horror films ever made. It was written and directed by Georges Méliès....
(1899) - CinderellaCinderella (1899 film)Cinderella is a 1899 French film directed by Georges Méliès.- Cast :*Barral*Bleuette Bernon*Carmely*Jeanne d'Alcy*Depeyrou*Georges Méliès as Le gnome de la pendule / Le suisse à l'entrée de l'église...
/ Cendrillon (1899) - The Dreyfus Affair / L'affaire Dreyfus (1899)
- Jeanne d'ArcJeanne d'Arc (1899 film)Jeanne d'Arc is a short silent film about Joan of Arc. The medieval film, released in 1900, was written and directed by Georges Méliès....
(1899) - A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)
- The Man With The Rubber HeadThe Man with the Rubber HeadL'homme à la tête de caoutchouc is a 1902 silent French fantasy film directed by Georges Méliès. It was filmed in 1901 and released in 1902.-Synopsis:...
/ L'homme à la tête de Caoutchouc (1902) - Gulliver's TravelsLe Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les géants (film)Le Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les géants is the first film adaptation of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels. It is a silent film, released in 1902 in France and 1903 in the US. It was directed by Georges Méliès.-External links:*...
/ Le Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et chez les Géants (1902) - The Inn Where No Man RestsL'Auberge du Bon ReposL'Auberge du Bon Repos is a 1903 silent French comedy film directed by Georges Méliès set in an inn. The film addresses the state of the drunken mind with light heartedness.-Synopsis:...
/ L'Auberge du Bon Repos (1903) - The Mystical Flame / La Flamme Merveilleuse (1903)
- Kingdom of the FairiesFairyland: A Kingdom of FairiesFairyland: A Kingdom of Fairies is a 1903 short silent adventure film directed by Georges Méliès. Prints of the film survive in the film archives of the British Film Institute and the Library of Congress....
/ Le Royaume des Fées (1903) - The Impossible VoyageThe Impossible VoyageThe Impossible Voyage is a 1904 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. The film's runtime is about 24 minutes , and was probably inspired by Melies' successful earlier film Le Voyage dans la Lune...
/ Voyage à travers l'impossible (1904) - Hilarious Posters / Les affiches en Guette (1905)
- Palace of the Arabian Knights / Le Palais des Mille et une Nuits (1905)
- Paris to Monte Carlo / Le raid Paris-Monte Carlo en Deux Heures (1905)
- The Mysterious Retort / L'Alchimiste Parafaragamus ou La Cornue Infernale (1906)
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea20,000 lieues sous les mers (film)20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a silent film made in 1907 by French director Georges Méliès, based loosely on the novel by Jules Verne of the same title. This became one of the first color films when it was hand tinted, frame by frame, by female factory workers....
/ 20,000 Lieues Sous les Mers (1907) - Conquest of the PoleConquest of the PoleConquest of the Pole is a science fantasy film by Georges Méliès based on the novel The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne. It was released in 1912 and deals with an extraordinary race to the north pole by rival parties of balloonists....
/ La Conquète du Pole (1912) - Baron Munchausen's DreamLes Aventures de baron de MunchhausenLes Aventures de baron de Munchhausen is a French film released in November 1911 based on a book by Gottfried August Bürger. It was one of the last films from early 20th century French filmmaker Georges Méliès...
/ Les hallucinations du Baron de Münchausen (1911) - The Ranchman's Debt of Honor (1911 - USA)
- The Knight of the Snows / Le Chevalier des Neiges (1912)
- Cinderella or The Glass Slipper / Cendrillon ou La Pantoufle Mystérieuse (1912)
- The Ghost of Sulpher Mountain (1912 -USA)
- The Prisoner's Story (1912 - USA)
- Le Voyage de la Famille Bourrichon (1913)
Videorecordings
- Films of George Méliès
- The Great Train Robbery and Other Primary Works
- Marvelous Méliès
- Méliès Le Cinémagicien
- Mes Mémoires
- Pioneers of the French Cinema, Volume One
- Le Grand MélièsLe Grand MélièsLe Grand Méliès is a 1952 short documentary film directed by Georges Franju about the life of the film pioneer Georges Méliès.-Cast:* Jeanne d'Alcy as Herself* François Lallement as Narrator * André Méliès as Georges Méliès...
(1952) - The life of Georges Méliès is told in this biodrama, directed by Georges FranjuGeorges Franju-External links:* at Allmovie...
. André Méliès plays the part of his own father.
Popular culture
The work of Georges Méliès has been referenced a number of times in film, television and fiction, including:- The 1956 film version of Around the World in Eighty Days features Le Voyage Dans La Lune at the Introduction.
- In Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's 1967 film, La ChinoiseLa ChinoiseLa Chinoise is a 1967 French political film directed by Jean-Luc Godard about young revolutionaries in Paris.-Plot summary:La Chinoise is a loose adaptation, if not parody, of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1872 novel, The Possessed...
, Guillaume (Jean-Pierre LéaudJean-Pierre Léaud-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....
) prefaces a lecture on current events with a discussion of who, in French cinema, was the true originator of the filming of current events, the LumièreLumière-Characters:*Lumière , one of the two main characters of the 2002 anime series Kiddy Grade*Lumiere, a character in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast-Places:*Lumière, a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada...
brothers or Méliès. Guillaume makes the argument that Méliès, rather than the Lumières, was the true originator of current event films in French cinema. - QueenQueen (band)Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
's 1995 music video "Heaven for EveryoneHeaven for Everyone"Heaven for Everyone" is a song written by Roger Taylor. It appeared originally in his band's album Shove It, with Freddie Mercury as a guest vocalist, and it's the album's fourth track. It was reworked with Queen's music and appeared in the 1995 album Made in Heaven, where it was the seventh...
" features clips from Méliès' Le Voyage dans la LuneLe Voyage dans la LuneA Trip to the Moon is a 1902 French black-and-white silent science fiction film. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon....
and The Impossible VoyageThe Impossible VoyageThe Impossible Voyage is a 1904 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. The film's runtime is about 24 minutes , and was probably inspired by Melies' successful earlier film Le Voyage dans la Lune...
. - The music videoMusic videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for The Smashing PumpkinsThe Smashing PumpkinsThe Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. Formed by Billy Corgan frontman and James Iha , the band has included Jimmy Chamberlin , D'arcy Wretzky , and currently includes Jeff Schroeder Mike Byrne , and Nicole Fiorentino The Smashing...
' 1996 song "Tonight, Tonight" was largely shot in the style of Méliès' best-known films, particularly Le Voyage Dans La Lune. The video also features a paddle wheel steamship named "S.S. Méliès." - In the last episode of the HBO miniseriesMiniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
From The Earth to the Moon, Méliès was played by Tchéky KaryoTchéky Karyo-Early life:Karyo was born in Istanbul to a Greek mother and Sephardic-Jewish father and raised in Paris, France. He studied drama at the Cyrano Theatre and later became a member of the Daniel Sorano Company, playing many classical roles.-Career:...
. - In 2003 The New York Guitar FestivalNew York Guitar FestivalThe New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...
commissioned the jazz composer/guitarist Bill FrisellBill FrisellWilliam Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
to composes scores for five early films by Georges Méliès, including A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible VoyageThe Impossible VoyageThe Impossible Voyage is a 1904 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. The film's runtime is about 24 minutes , and was probably inspired by Melies' successful earlier film Le Voyage dans la Lune...
(1904). Bill Frisell's Trio presented the world premiere of the scores in January 2004 at two concerts taking place at the New York Guitar FestivalNew York Guitar FestivalThe New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...
. The performances were later broadcast on WNYCWNYCWNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
New York Public Radio. - The contribution of Méliès to cinema history is the subject of the 2007 illustrated novel The Invention of Hugo CabretThe Invention of Hugo CabretThe Invention of Hugo Cabret is a historical-fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic Press. The hardcover edition was released on January 30, 2007, and the paperback edition was released on June 2, 2008. With 284 pictures between the book's 533 pages, the...
by Brian SelznickBrian SelznickBrian Selznick is a Caldecott-winning American author and illustrator of children's books.-Life and career:Selznick was born in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey...
, and Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's 2011 film adaptation of it as Hugo with Ben KingsleyBen KingsleySir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
playing Méliès. The film recreates how the Méliès studio functioned, features several segments of early films by Méliès, and portrays the neglect and later recognition he received in his lifetime.
External links
- Official Georges Méliès website
- Museo Méliès, English and Spanish (Pequeña Coleccion Privada)
- Index des Films avec Georges Méliès
- Cinémathèque Méliès (Les Amis de Georges Méliès)
- Georges Méliès daily in-depth reviews of individual Méliès films
- New music for Méliès - Bringing silent cinema back to life