Georges Méliès
Directing
🎂 1861-12-09
Georges Méliès (December 9, 1861 - January 21, 1938), full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French illusionist and filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. One of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, tracking shots, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his work, Méliès pioneered effects that would define cinematic special effects for decades to come. A prolific innovator in the use of special effects, Méliès accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896, a method of creating seamless disappearing and/or appearing effects used throughout both films and television for decades to come. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through cinematography, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the first "Cinemagician". Two of his best-known films are A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). Both stories involve strange, surreal voyages, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy. Méliès was also an early pioneer of horror cinema, which can be traced back to his Le Manoir du diable (1896). In early 1909 Méliès stopped making films to protest Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Parents Company monopoly, and presided over the first meeting of the International Filmmakers Congress in Paris. Further financial hardships created by his opposition to Edison and diminishing influence, Méliès disappeared from public life. By the mid-1920s he made a meager living as a candy and toy salesma in Paris, with the assistance of funds collected by other filmmakers. Although he was recognized for his contributions in cinema, Méliès spent most of his later years in poverty before being accepted into La Maison du Retraite du Cinéma, the film industry's retirement home in Orly.
Cast credits(144)
Self (archive footage)
1978
Professor Barbenfouillis / The Moon
1902
Magician (archive footage from "The Vanishing Lady")
2019
Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
2011
Mabouloff
1904
Astronomer
1898
Mephistopheles
1896
1907
L'homme qui essaie de dormir
1896
The Gnome of the Clock / The Swiss at the Entrance to the Church
1899
The Man in the Checked Suit
1897
1904
un profanateur de la tombe de Cléopâtre
1899
Professor of Astronomy
1907
Man
1896
1899
Le commissaire de police
1907
Self / Various Roles (archive footage)
1997
Le locataire diabolique
1909
Barbe-bleue
1901
1898
1903
The Chemist / The India Rubber Head
1901
Prince Bel-Azor
1903
The Traveler
1897
1903
Père de Jeanne
1900
Self (archive footage)
2021
1905
Devil
1903
The Fakir
1908
The Police Inspector
1908
1903
Self (archive footage)
2012
Magician
1896
Ulysses (uncredited)
1905
The Executioner
1903
The Magician
1900
Magician
1899
1904
Doctor
1902
Devil
1903
1903
Conjurer
1898
Gulliver
1902
Conjurer
1900
All the members of the orchestra
1900
The Man
1900
The Magician
1909
1907
The Bill Poster
1906
1904
Méphistophélès
1897
Himself
1896
1903
The Sorcerer Khalafar (uncredited)
1905
1901
Le chevalier mystère
1899
1903
Wrestler
1900
Excelsior
1901
Self (archive footage)
1979
The Rag-and-Bone Man / Beggar on Crutches / Coal Seller
1904
1902
The Captain
1897
2024
Le professeur Mabouloff
1912
Satan
1907
1907
The Fairy Carabosse
1906
Fernand Labori
1899
The Roman
1908
Self (archive footage)
2014
Tribolet
1907
The Sleeping Man (uncredited)
1899
Un joueur de cartes
1896
Man with whiskers
1904
1902
The Devil
1899
Le Sculpteur
1898
Robinson Crusoé
1902
The Magician
1905
1903
Mephisto
1897
Gnome
1908
The Hindoo Magician
1902
1903
Le fantôme de César
1908
Beggar
1900
The Melomaniac
2021
1908
1901
Satan
1904
1906
Mephistopholes
1903
1904
1903
Pygmalion
1898
L'illusioniste
1899
1905
1903
Ali Barbouyou
1907
Drunk Traveler
1906
Satan
1906
1908
1905
Himself
1929
Passerby
1908
Le comique excentrique
1900
1899
1903
1904
1904
1903
Devil
1912
Musketeer
1903
Artiste
1900
1904
The brahmin
1901
1904
1906
The Wizard
1901
1902
The Magician
1898
The Magician / The Double
1904
The Man
1900
The Old Farmer
1908
Rip Van Winkle
1905
1903
Lamplighter
1903
1909
1901
1901
1911
1901
1904
1904
1899
Prince
1900
Himself (archive footage)
1939
1901
1905
1903
1903
Production (39)
Producer
1902
Producer
1904
Production Designer
1898
Producer
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Producer
1896
Producer
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Producer
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Producer
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Producer
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Art (23)
Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
1901
Production Design
1903
Production Design
1897
Production Design
1900
Production Design
1903
Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
1907
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
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Production Design
1905
Writing (26)
Screenplay
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Screenplay
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Screenplay
1898
Writer
1896
Writer
1896
Screenplay
1899
Screenplay
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Adaptation
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Screenplay
1903
Screenplay
1897
Screenplay
1900
Screenplay
1903
Screenplay
1903
Writer
1902
Screenplay
1909
Screenplay
1912
Writer
1906
Writer
1896
Screenplay
1902
Screenplay
1897
Original Film Writer
1908
Screenplay
1905
Screenplay
1906
Writer
1900
Screenplay
1905
Writer
1900
Directing (343)
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