Last 15th of December, a group of students involved in ACTION! went to visit an exposition called “Georges Méliès e o cine de 1900”. There we learned a lot about George Méliès work, especially all sorts of things related with the first science fiction full-length-film “Le voyage dans la lune” which nowadays is considered World Heritage.
Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. He was born on 8th of December 1861 in Paris. Since he was a child he showed an especial interest on drawing, but his father wanted him to follow the family business. He was sent to England in order to finish his professional studies. There he had difficulties learning English so he used to spend his free time on shows where he didn't need to understand the language such as magic shows. He decided to become a magician and he soon learned all their tricks.
Afterward he returned to Paris and, although he wanted to be an artist, his parents made him work on the family business. As soon as his father retired, he left the job and spent his money on the theatre “Robert Houdin” where he directed different performances.
On 1895 the Lumière Brothers invited Méliès to the first public projection where they were going to show the world their huge invention: the cinematograph. Astonished, Méliès asked them to sell him their invention, but their father answered “it doesn't have an economic future”. As he thought it did have an economic future, he bought a similar machine from Robert William Paul and he perfected it so he could film short daily scenes.
One day, while he was filming, the crank stopped working for a few seconds. When he watched the short film he realised that some things had suddenly changed as if by magic. He decided to use this to introduce magic in his films. It was the beginning of the substitution trick.
On 1897 he founded the first cinema studio within Europe in Montreuil. There he invented many techniques, like overprinting or hand painting. Working as a director, main actor, camera, set designer…, he filmed more than 400 short films; the most famous is “Le voyage dans la lune”.
With the arrival of the first important producers and his wife´s death, he was ruined and he left forever the cinema world. On 1923 he had to sell all his properties and left Montreuil.
On 1926 he married Jeanne D'Alcy, one of his old main actresses and they started to work together in her kiosk in Montparnasse. There a journalist found him and realised that the man who had transformed the cinema world was forgotten. After this discovery Méliès was object of all kind of homages and commemorations. Besides, since 1946 the Méliès awards are given annually to the best French film.