Méliès the Magician

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of watching a documentary about the work and career of early French filmmaker, Georges Méliès.

His work is the sort of early silent film many of us have seen without realizing who the names behind the work were. He is the creator and mind behind the A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune):

Y’know that one… the one Smashing Pumpkins appropriated as a concept for their 1996 video Tonight, Tonight single?

Yeah, THAT one.

Méliès began his professional life as a stage magician in Paris and in 1895, after a demonstration of Lumière brothers’ camera, became fascinated with film. Within two years, he had established his own film studio and was creating elaborate films. In the eighteen years before his company went bankrupt, he directed over five hundred films.

Here is an amazing piece from 1903, Le Mélomane— a marvel of multi-exposures:

Le Mélomane, 1903

Le Cake-walk infernal, 1903