Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema

Left pane: A real moustache on a real magician; Top right: Rocket crash lands in the eye of the moon; Bottom right: Méliès in his own film.

Morning Finger Lickers! Today I bring you news from the world of French film. No sighing at the back. French film is wonderful! No, no, really, if you’re moaning about subtitles you shouldn’t be on this site.

Parisian and 1900s filmmaker Georges Méliès is not only credited as the forefather of special effects but is also one of the first true independent filmmakers. He not only developed cinema technically but also narratologically, wowing audiences with such spectacles as Le Voyage dans la lune (1902), that’s A Trip to the Moon for all you linguistically challenged Finger Lickers. A Trip to the Moon also features the iconic image of a rocket crash landing in the man in the moon’s eye, a still which has become synonymous with filmmaking and is identifiable by film scholars worldwide. Méliès was a magician and owned the famed Theatre Robert-Houdin in Paris, he built the first film studio and the likes of D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin credit him with a huge debt of gratitude.

This is man that was hugely powerful as both an entertainer and an innovator. His work is inspirational and magical. And now through the power of DVD you can see a huge number of his films restored, stablised and re-scored. The box set, entitled Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema, features 173 of Méliès films that have been collected from all over the world by Lobster Films in Paris and were found in the possession of the likes of the British Film Institute, the Academy Archives and private collectors. Really, truly, honestly if you care about film in any way at all you must see Georges Méliès work. The DVD, as usual, seems to be only available in North America at the moment but that shouldn’t stop us Finger Lickers. Lets face it folks, the US dollar is like Monopoly money these days, God bless George W. for helping us feed our DVD habit.

That’s it from me for now,

K

Check out A Trip to the Moon here, and remember folks, it’s 1902!

Buy yourself a copy of the DVD box set:

Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)
Price: USD 80.99

19 used & new available from USD 66.91

(4 customer reviews)