History of Georges Melies

Georges Melies:

Georges was a Parisian born in 1861.

From a very early age he showed interest in the arts, which led him to a place called Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Here, Melies showed particular interest in stage design and puppetry.

By the time he was 23, he moved to London, at his parent’s request, insisting he learned English, as their ambition was to have Melies work at his father’s footwear business.

In London, he became keen in stage conjury after seeing the work of Maskelyne and Cooke.

When Melies eventually returned to Paris, he worked at his father’s factory, and also taking over the factory from his father when he retired, meaning he could raise enough to buy the Theatre Robert Houdin when it was put on sale in 1888.

From then he furthered his passion of showmanship full time, including making performances about magic and illusions.

At the unveiling of the Lumiere Brothers’ cinematographe, Melies was present, and approached the brothers with a offer to buy the cinematographe, as he was clearly interested in the device, however, the brothers turned down Melies’ offer.

With the Lumiere brothers not helping him, he turned to Robert Paul in London, to investigate the art of moving pictures, shortly after seeking Paul, Melies built his first projector, he then began the planning of his first screening, which was to take place of April 4^th 1896.

He started by screenings other peoples work, mainly those made for the kinectoscope, yet within months he was creating and displaying his work, the first of which being one reel, one shot views and lasting approximately a minute.

In autumn, 1896, whilst Melies was filming a simple street scene, his camera jammed, taking a few seconds to un-jam it, thinking nothing more of it, he went and processed the film, it was then that he saw that the film can have objects suddenly appear, disappear or transform into other objects.

He realised from this mistake that he can turn a mistake into an effect, hence the birth of ideas for complex special effects, which eventually became reality.
This became known as a Jump Cut.

Melies went on to make films such as:

• La caverne Maudite (The Cave of the Demons -1896), also known as the first double exposure,
• Un Homme de tete (Four Heads are better than One -1898), the first split-screen featuring performers acting opposite themselves,

and…

• Cendrillon (Cinderella -1899), the first dissolve.

In early 1920s, Melies became bankrupt, and his Theatre Robert Houdin was demolished, it is said he disappeared until the late 1920s when his contribution to film was recognised by the country, and was awarded with the Legion of Honour medal, as well as a rent free apartment in which he spent the remainder of his life, until 1938, where he died.

Georges Melies made over 500 films, starring in almost all of them.

Information taken and made into own words via website: http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/melies_bio.html on Tuesday, 11th September 2012.