Biography
Marie-Georges-Jean-Melies (George Melies) was born December 8th,
1861 in Paris. His father, Louis Melies, was the owner of multiple
shoemaking factories. Since a young boy, George expressed his artistic talents: caricatures of teachers and students, marionette shows (from his own constructed cardboard sets), and magic, of course. He
went to London to learn English in 1884, but spent most of his time enjoying the Maskelyne and Cooke Illusion shows (which no doubt influenced his future career), On his
return to Paris, George was forced to work in one of his father's shoe
factories. This experience taught him
mechanical advice which would resurface in his career as a director. During the same time he did caricatures for the satirical newspaper "Le Griffe" under the pen name Geo Smile. When his father
retired in 1886 he passed the business down to his sons. George sold his share
and bought the Theatre Robert-Houdin.
George opened it to the
public in 1888 and would do little stage performing and focused more on running
the building. In 1895, he received an invitation from Louis and Auguste Lumiere
that would influence him for what we know him as today. The invitation was for
the first screening of Motion Pictures. The Lumiere brothers had invented the
cinematographe, a device that films, prints, and projects films. The showing was
in the basement of a cafe on December 28th, 1895.
Though films were not an entirely new thing (the very first film is ROUNDHAY GARDEN SCENE from 1888), they were for the Lumiere's spectators, and Melies realized the "magical" potential of the cinema. The Lumiere's
rejected his offer of ten thousand francs and told him that it was an invention without a future; a mere scientific device without any commercial potential. Melies made his own camera from mechanical parts in his
theatre and began
his first films in 1896, which were of actual events, like the Lumiere's. His films were shown in between acts in his Theatre Robert-Houdin (back then, any sort of picture that moved was magic). But while he was
filming a traffic scene outside the Paris Opera House in late 1896, his camera jammed. He managed to get it unstuck
and continue filming, but when he viewed the film he saw objects disappear and
reappear on screen. A bus changing into a
hearse, a man into a woman... In the moments between when th
e camera's
jam and unjam, the traffic and pedestrians had moved, but because he did not film
this it appeared that they had instantly changed. Now that Melies accidently
revealed stop - motion photography to himself, he shifted from straightforward filming to producing his own "trick"
films. His first trick film is THE VANISHING LADY where he
had actress (and real-life mistress) Jehanne D'alcy sitting on a chair, placed a cloth over top of her
(stopped the camera), took it off showing she had vanished (stopped the camera),
and reappeared as a skeleton. He introduced his own company Star Film, and from 1896 through to
1912 he would produce more than five hundred films. He made actualities,
dramatic films, fantasy, and advertisements. Melies realized that a studio
for his films would be needed, and built one in Montreuil in 1897. His
studio was made of glass, which allowed him to use natural lighting (he later would become the first European to use artificial lighting).
As Melies let his imagination run free he was discovering new
special effect techniques: double exposure - which 
could be done by winding
the film back and filming over it, and super imposition - were he found that they could be done on black backgrounds.
Melies was now creating trick films regularly. Though most of his films made before the twentieth century are lost to history, some of the surviving films include
THE ASTRONOMER'S DREAM, THE FOUR TROUBLESOME HEADS, and
AFTER THE BALL (widely credited as the cinema's first nude scene). One of
his most ambitious
films was the 1899 THE DREYFUS AFFAIR, where Melies
recreated the events of Alfred Dreyfus in a series of reenacted newsreels. This was the beginning of the
narrative film, where a movie's story is carried into another scene. Alongside
stop - motion, fades, super
imposition, and coloured stencil tinting, Melies created the first horror films and used make up
extensively. 
Melies continued on with his single scene trick films and stage narratives
from 1900 onward, but his most significant film 1902's A TRIP TO THE MOON.
Picking off from a similar theme used in THE ASTRONOMER'S DREAM, this was loosely based on Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon
and H.G.Wells' The First Men on the Moon. The film was nearly one reel in length (one thousand feet, or fifteen
minutes), and at a cost of ten thousand francs, it was probably the most expensive film up to its date. Also noteworthy is that it was the first to be internationally
released through piracy. Melies had overseas shipments to America, but the film companies of Thomas Edison and
Sigmund Lubin secretly made copies of the film. Edison made a fortune on it and Lubin had tried to vend a
pirated version to Melies
This caused Melies to be more aware of his copyright, and would now on place an 'indication' in the backdrops of his films.
Despite the popularity of A TRIP TO THE MOON, Melies was already
beginning to be well
behind other filmmakers like such as Edwin S. Porter or Ferdinand Zecca (Melies influenced both directors, which plays an ironic role in his demise). Most consider 1903's THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY
by Porter as the first true narrative film because Melies' narratives were more like abridged stage plays. Melies always filmed his scenes using one shot
and would only change shots if the scene chang
ed. He believed the camera was like
a spectator; and if the
spectator never moves, neither should the camera. Other filmmakers were
beginning to use separate
shots to compose scenes, and the audiences tastes became more sophisticated as
the films did.
Furthermore, there had been an endless number of Melies imitations after the 1900s. Pathe filmmakers like Zecca
and de Chomon borrowed his theatrical style and used it in more modern ways. In 1911 he
joined Pathe to save himself from bankruptcy.
There he signed a contract that allowed his films to be edited by
Zecca (who deliberately butchered Melies' films in order to
prevent Melies from replacing him). Melies' last successful fantasy was 1912's The
Conquest of the Pole, and by this time he was bankrupt and disappeared
entirely.
He was rediscovered in 1926
at a toy kiosk by film magazine editor Leon Druhot, who published a story about
Melies' dilemma. From then on, the remainder of Melies' films were sought after
and restored. He was awarded the French legion of honour in 1931, and after taking part in a radio interview,
George Melies died in poverty on January 21st,
1938.
It seems
that Melies is more appreciated now than ever. Though he is most famous as the first
to incorporate special effects consistently, perhaps his greatest contribution is a more subtle one: the fact that he was the first to realize that cinema had the ability to go beyond reality (or the stage, in Melies' case). Melies is often criticized for
making films that simply relied on the effect, but they are much more than that;
they often are a subtle parody of the fads of his time. The magic of Melies films comes not from his special effects alone, but from the combinations mythologies, visual styles, and vaudeville routines. There is an ongoing quest by his remaining family to find and restore his films. At least
four hundred of his original negatives were used to make boots for the French
army in the first world war, and Melies destroyed others in frustration. More and more of his films have been showing up. Originally, it was thought that 140 of his films
exist, but since the 200th Melies film arrived in year 2000, it appears that Melies' cult
legacy may not be lost anytime soon.
