- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMarie Georges Jean Méliès
- Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color.
His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and An Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films.
Méliès died of cancer on 21 January 1938 at the age of 76.
In 2016, a Méliès film long thought lost, A Wager Between Two Magicians, or, Jealous of Myself (1904), was discovered in a Czechoslovak film archive.
- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges
- SpousesJehanne d'Alcy(December 10, 1925 - January 21, 1938) (his death)Eugénie Genin(June 25, 1885 - May 3, 1913) (her death, 2 children)
- While shooting one of his life scenes in the Place de l'Opera in Paris, the camera jammed. It took about a minute to clear the problem and resume shooting. When the film was processed and screened, Méliès saw a bus suddenly turn into a hearse; people in the scene suddenly appeared or disappeared. This accident led to his discovery of stop motion trickery which became his first filmic special effects technique. This stop motion technique had previously been discovered and used by Thomas A. Edison, but Méliès made extensive use of it in his short films.
- Charles Chaplin said he was "the alchemist of light."
- Martin Scorsese said that "he invented everything, basically, he invented it all".
- On December 28, 1895, he was a member of the first audience in the world to see the Lumiere brothers' Cinematographe.
- Is regarded as "The Father of Special Effects."
- [in 1932] My best satisfaction in all is to be sure not to be one day without bread and home!
- [October 1931] I am happy that many of my films are being re-discovered today. Luckily enough, I am strong and in good health. But it is hard to work 14 hours a day without getting my Sundays or holidays, and living in an icebox in winter and a furnace in summer.
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