Georges Méliès (1861–1938) was a French filmmaker and magician generally regarded as the first person to recognize the potential of narrative film.[1] He made about 520 films between 1896 and 1912,[2] covering a range of genres including trick films, fantasies, comedies, advertisements, satires, costume dramas, literary adaptations, erotic films, melodramas, and imaginary voyages.[3] His works are often considered as important precursors to modern narrative cinema, though some recent scholars have argued that Méliès's films are better understood as spectacular theatrical creations rooted in the 19th-century féerie tradition.[4]
After attending the first demonstration of the Lumière Brothers' Cinematographe in December 1895, he bought a film projector from the British film pioneer Robert W. Paul and began using it to project short films at his theater of illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, in Paris.[5] Having studied the principles on which Paul's projector ran, Méliès was able to modify the machine so that it could be used as a makeshift camera.[6] He began making his own films with it in May 1896, founded the Star Film Company in the same year, and built his own studio in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis in 1897.[7] His films A Trip to the Moon (1902), The Kingdom of the Fairies (1903), and The Impossible Voyage (1904) were among the most popular films of the first few years of the twentieth century,[8] and Méliès built a second, larger studio in 1907.[9] However, a combination of difficulties—including American film piracy, standardized film prices set in 1908 by the Motion Picture Patents Company, and a decline in popularity of fantasy films—led eventually to Méliès's financial ruin and the closing of his studio.[10] His last films were made in 1912 under the supervision of the rival studio Pathé, and in 1922–23 Méliès sold his studios, closed the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, and discarded his own collection of his negative and positive prints. In 1925 he began selling toys and candy from a stand in the Gare Montparnasse in Paris.[9] Thanks to the efforts of film history devotées, especially René Clair, Jean George Auriol, and Paul Gilson, Méliès and his work were rediscovered in the late 1920s, and he was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1931.[11]
In the list below, Méliès's films are numbered according to their order in the catalogues of the Star Film Company. In Méliès's numbering system, films were listed and numbered according to their order of production, and each catalogue number denotes about 20 meters of film (thus, for example, A Trip to the Moon, at about 260 meters long, is listed as #399–411).[12] The original French release titles, as well as the original titles used in the US and UK versions of the Star Film catalogues, are listed in the body of the filmography; notable variant titles are provided in smaller text. The parenthetical descriptive subtitles used in the catalogues (e.g. scène comique) are also provided whenever possible. Films directed by Méliès but not originally released by the Star Film Company (such as The Coronation of Edward VII, released by Charles Urban, or The Conquest of the Pole, released by Pathé Frères) are also included. Where available, the list also includes information on whether each film survives, survives in fragmentary form, or is presumed lost. Unless otherwise referenced, the information presented here is derived from the 2008 filmography prepared by Jacques Malthête,[13] augmented by filmographies prepared in the 1970s by Paul Hammond[14] and John Frazer.[15]
List of films
Miscellaneous films
Later projects
Following the revival of interest in Méliès and his work in the late 1920s, he took part in several film projects:
- On 16 December 1929, a "Gala Méliès" was held at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in honor of the filmmaker. At the end of the program, after a screening of some of Méliès's films from the 1900s, a new film was projected, described by Méliès's granddaughter Madeleine Malthête-Méliès as follows:
- Calling upon the method perfected by Méliès twenty-four years earlier … which allowed action to move from the screen to the stage … the Gala organizers asked him to shoot a very short film; we see him suddenly appear on the screen … Lost in the streets of Paris, he is looking everywhere for the Salle Pleyel … on the wall he sees an enormous Gala poster bearing his picture … He dives head first into the poster. Suddenly, the lights go on in the hall [where the film was projected]. The screen rises and uncovers, in the middle of the stage, a frame to which is nailed the poster we have just seen. Suddenly the paper rips apart and Méliès appears in the flesh.[84]
- In 1933, Jean Aurenche and Jacques B. Brunius asked Méliès to make an advertising film for the Régie des Tabacs of France.[2] Méliès's contribution, his final completed work as a film director, was a 28-second sequence featuring two uses of the stop substitution effect. It was reused in Brunius's 1939 film Violons d'Ingres.[85]
- In the autumn of 1937, Méliès began work on a new film, Le Métro fantôme, with a scenario by Jacques Prévert. However, Méliès died on 21 January 1938 and the project was not completed.[2]
Dubiously attributed films
The following films are listed without cited sources in the 1974 filmography by Paul Hammond[14] and its revision by John Frazer,[15] but not in the more complete 2008 filmography by Jacques Malthête.[13] None of the following films have catalogue numbers, and all of them, if they existed to begin with, are presumed lost.
| English title | French title | Date | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| No English title | Paulus chantant: Père la Victoire | 1897 | 20m/65 ft |
| No English title | Paulus chantant: En revenant d'la revue | 1897 | 20m/65 ft |
| Seek and Thou Shalt Find | No French title | January 1908 | 27m/88 ft |
| No English title | Le Traitment 706/Guérison de l'obésité en 5 minutes[lower-alpha 23] | September 1910 | 124m/390 ft |
| No English title | Le Mousquetaire de la Reine | 1910 | Unknown |
| No English title | Le Conte du vieux Talute | 1910 | Unknown |
| No English title | Les sept barres d'or | 1910 | Unknown |
| No English title | Galatée | 1910 | Unknown |
| No English title | L'Homme aux mille inventions | 1910 | Unknown |
Misattributed films
The following films by other directors have occasionally been erroneously credited to Méliès:
| Title | Year | Actual director | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magic Roses[45] | 1906 | Segundo de Chomón[45] | Pathé |
| The Red Spectre[86] | 1907 | Segundo de Chomón[87] | Pathé |
| Excursion to the Moon[45] | 1908 | Segundo de Chomón[45] | Pathé |
| Cinderella Up-to-Date[15] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[88] | Star Film |
| The Count's Wooing[15] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[89] | Star Film |
| For Sale—A Baby[14] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[90] | Star Film |
| For the Cause of Suffrage[15] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[91] | Star Film |
| Mr. and Mrs. Duff[15] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[92] | Star Film |
| A Tumultuous Elopement[15] | 1909 | Gaston Méliès[93] | Star Film |
| Bessie's Ride[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Changing Cooks[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Mary's Stratagem[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Mexican As It Is Spoken[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| The Mission Waif[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| The Ranch Man's Debt of Honor[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Right or Wrong[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Red Cloud's Secret[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| The Stolen Grey[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| His Terrible Lesson[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| Tommy's Rocking Horse[94] | 1911 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| The Ghost of Sulphur Mountain[94] | 1912 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
| The Prisoner's Story[94] | 1912 | Gaston Méliès[95] | Star Film |
Notes
Footnotes
- 1 2 Malthête's 2008 filmography lists No. 26, Une nuit terrible, as surviving and No. 190, Un bon lit, as lost. However, Méliès's great-great-granddaughter, Pauline Méliès, published findings in 2013 suggesting that the film previously believed to be No. 26 is actually No. 190, and that the actual No. 26 survives in two print copies. If this hypothesis is true, both films survive.[17]
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 A flipbook, published by Léon Beaulieu in the late 1890s, was rediscovered in the 2010s[19] and has been tentatively identified as a fragment of the film.[20]
- 1 2 The Méliès scholar John Frazer was unable to obtain a print, but speculated that a fragment may survive in Budapest.[15]
- 1 2 3 Paul Hammond reported in 1974 that the film had survived,[14] but it is classified as lost in John Frazer's 1979 revision of Hammond's filmography[15] as well as in Jacques Malthête's 2008 filmography.[13]
- ↑ Listed as lost by Malthête,[13] but believed by Frazer to survive in a private collection.[23]
- ↑ Two distinct versions, with different scenery, slightly different actions, and a different featured dancer, are known to survive.[26]
- ↑ Numbered 217 in British catalogues[30]
- ↑ Numbered 216 in British catalogues[30]
- 1 2 Films #232 and #233 were released as a single film, #232–233, in American catalogues.[34]
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Listed as lost by Malthête,[34] but believed by Frazer to survive in a private collection.[35]
- ↑ Listed as lost by Malthête,[38] but believed by Frazer to survive in a private collection.[39]
- ↑ The Méliès scholar John Frazer was unable to obtain a print, but speculated that a copy may survive in Belgrade.[15]
- ↑ In addition to his other films, it was also around 1900 that Méliès produced 15–20 advertising films. Though they were not included in the Star Film catalogues, the products advertised are known to have included tortoiseshell combs, Bornibus mustard, Dewar's whiskey, Le Bock Orbec beer, Sirop de Picon, Veuve C. Brunot shoe polish, Robert baby food, and Vicat insecticide. Other products probably advertised by Méliès were Mystère corsets, Falières phosphate, Nestlé flour, Xour lotion, Moritz beer, Pilocarpine anti-balding tonic, Delion hats, Menier and Poulain chocolate, and Éclipse shoe polish.[42]
- ↑ Not sold through the Star Films catalogues; commissioned and distributed by (and produced with the collaboration of) Charles Urban of the Warwick Trading Company[48]
- ↑ Frazer saw this film at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s,[51] but Malthête's 2008 filmography lists it as lost.[13]
- ↑ Frazer described what he thought to be a surviving fragment of this film,[51] but it was in fact another Méliès film, The Firefall. In turn, the film Frazer labels The Firefall was a film by Ferdinand Zecca.[52]
- ↑ Frazer discovered and examined this film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the 1970s,[59] but Malthête's 2008 filmography lists it as lost.[13]
- ↑ Not sold in the Star Films catalogues; commissioned by Émile and Vincent Isola for use in a 1906 ballet-féerie titled Vers les étoiles[66]
- 1 2 Catalogue number unknown
- ↑ In 1910, Méliès temporarily stopped production at his film studio in order to tour Europe with a stage magic spectacle, Les Fantômes du Nil.[9]
- ↑ Made under the supervision of Pathé and distributed by that company[82]
- ↑ Supervised by Pathé, but the film was taken out of Méliès's control and was never released[83]
- ↑ Not listed in Frazer's filmography
References
- ↑ Cook, David A. (1981), A History of Narrative Film, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, p. 13, ISBN 0393013707
- 1 2 3 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 88
- ↑ Hammond 1974, p. 8
- ↑ Gaudreault, André; Le Forestier, Laurent (2011), Méliès, carrefour des attractions (academic conference program), Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle, retrieved 23 July 2013
- ↑ Frazer 1979, pp. 33–35
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, pp. 301–302
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 9
- ↑ Solomon 2011, p. 3
- 1 2 3 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 10
- ↑ Frazer 1979, pp. 46–48
- ↑ Frazer 1979, pp. 55–56
- ↑ Solomon 2011, p. 7
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, pp. 334–356
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Hammond 1974, pp. 134–148
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Frazer 1979, pp. 241–255
- ↑ Mannoni, Laurent, "[Film lithographique] da Une séance de prestidigitation di Georges Méliès", Il Cinema Ritrovato, Cineteca di Bologna, retrieved 1 October 2016
- ↑ Méliès, Pauline (2013), "A-t-on retrouvé 15 secondes d'un film de Georges Méliès?", Georges Méliès site officiel, retrieved 30 December 2013
- ↑ Hutchinson, Pamela (22 October 2020), "What the flip! The chance discovery that's uncovered treasures of the very earliest cinema", The Guardian
- ↑ Lecointe, Thierry; Byrne, Robert (2019), "Léon Beaulieu's Pocket Cinematograph", silentfilm.org, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, retrieved 25 April 2020
- ↑ San Francisco Silent Film Festival (2019), "Léon Beaulieu Flipbooks", silentfilm.org, retrieved 25 April 2020
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Méliès, Georges (2008), Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 978-1893967359
- ↑ Bromberg, Serge (2006), "Figaro et l'Auvergnat", Giornate Database, Pordenone Silent Film Festival, retrieved 17 December 2017
- 1 2 Frazer 1979, p. 74
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 94
- ↑ Gianetto, Claudia (2012), "[Nouvelles Luttes extravagantes]", Giornate Database, Pordenone Silent Film Festival
- ↑ Solomon, Matthew (Fall 2012), "Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)/Georges Méliès Encore: New Discoveries (1896-1911)", Moving Image, 12 (2): 187–192, doi:10.5749/movingimage.12.2.0187, ISSN 1532-3978, JSTOR 10.5749/movingimage.12.2.0187
- ↑ Pitts, Michael R. (2015). RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929–1956. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 284.
- ↑ Cinémathèque Française (2011), Deux films de Georges Méliès: Robinson Crusoé et Automaboulisme et autorité, retrieved 12 June 2013
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 96
- 1 2 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 340
- 1 2 Frazer 1979, p. 76
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 101
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 104
- 1 2 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 341
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 81
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 106
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 108
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 342
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 85
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 112
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 113
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 343
- ↑ "Bouquet d'illusions", Il Cinema Ritrovato, Cineteca di Bologna, retrieved 25 June 2017
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 117
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Méliès, Georges (2010), Georges Méliès: Encore (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 978-1893967564
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 124
- ↑ Vilas-Boas, Eric; Maher, John, eds. (October 5, 2020). "The 100 Sequences That Shaped Animation". Vulture.
It was at the studio that Méliès made over 500 shorts, including his most famous work Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) and not as well known but just as beloved works such as L'Œuf du Sorcier (1902), also known as The Prolific Magical Egg. The film, directed by and starring Méliès, is an example of early stop-motion SFX as the film sees the magician make an egg appear in a deft sleight of hand and then grow the egg until it turns into not one but three giant heads, which then merge into a goblinesque facade.
- 1 2 Frazer 1979, p. 100
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 134
- ↑ Hutchinson, Pamela (10 October 2012), "Georges Méliès's Robinson Crusoé film resurfaces in Pordenone", The Guardian, retrieved 26 January 2014
- 1 2 Frazer 1979, p. 103
- ↑ Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, p. 209, ISBN 2903053073, OCLC 10506429
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 146
- ↑ Abel, Richard (2005): Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, p 125
- ↑ Agence France-Presse (11 October 2016), "'Lost' movie by silent film pioneer unearthed at Czech film archive", The Guardian, retrieved 12 October 2016
- ↑ Méliès, Georges (2011), Georges Méliès (DVD; short film collection), Issy-les-Moulineaux: StudioCanal
- ↑ Bromberg, Serge (2017), "Le Rosier miraculeux", Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone Silent Film Festival, retrieved 21 March 2018
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 145
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 149
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 176
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 178
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 179
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 194
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 196
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 204
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 209
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 215
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 227
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 234
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 235
- 1 2 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 236
- 1 2 Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 238
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 239
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 254
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 255
- ↑ Malthête, Jacques (October 1982), "Sur les traces des 'Star' Films disparus", Les dossiers de la cinémathèque, vol. 10, pp. 52–67
- ↑ Lentz, Harris M. (2000), Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy Film and Television Credits, vol. 2, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, p. 1087
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 272
- ↑ Gordon, Rae Beth (2001), Why the French Love Jerry Lewis: From Cabaret to Early Cinema, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, p. xvi, ISBN 9780804738941
- ↑ Young, R. G. (1997), The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies, New York: Applause, p. 531, ISBN 9781557832696
- ↑ Malthête & Mannoni 2008, p. 284
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 52
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 53
- ↑ Gaudreault 2011, p. 45
- ↑ Mény, Jacques (1997), "Méliès imaginé ou images de Méliès au cinéma et à la télévision", in Malthête, Jacques; Marie, Michel (eds.), Georges Méliès, l'illusionniste fin de siècle?: actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 13–22 août 1996, Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, p. 386, ISBN 2878541405
- ↑ Frazer 1979, p. 189
- ↑ "Le Spectre rouge – Segundo de Chomón – 1907", Filmographie Pathé, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, 9 October 2008
- ↑ Bennett, Carl (20 April 2012), "Cinderella Up-to-Date", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era
- ↑ Bennett, Carl (5 April 2010), "The Count's Wooing", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era
- ↑ Malthête, Jacques (October 1982), "Sur les traces des 'Star' Films disparus", Les dossiers de la cinémathèque, vol. 10, pp. 52–67
- ↑ Bennett, Carl (22 December 2009), "For the Cause of Suffrage", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era
- ↑ Bennett, Carl (16 October 2008), "Mr. and Mrs. Duff", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era
- ↑ Bennett, Carl (12 May 2010), "A Tumultuous Elopement", Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Rège, Philippe (2010), Encyclopedia of French Film Directors, vol. I, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, p. 710, ISBN 9780810869394
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Hammond 1974, pp. 149–151
Citations
- Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., ISBN 0816183686
- Gaudreault, André (2011), "Theatricality, Narrativity, and Trickality: Reevaluating the Cinema of Georges Méliès", in Solomon, Matthew (ed.), Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 31–47, ISBN 9781438435817
- Hammond, Paul (1974), Marvellous Méliès, London: Gordon Fraser, ISBN 0900406380
- Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, ISBN 9782732437323
- Solomon, Matthew (2011), "Introduction", in Solomon, Matthew (ed.), Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 1–24, ISBN 9781438435817
