Georges Méliès
Birthday: 1861-12-08
Place of Birth: Paris, France
Biography: Georges Méliès (December 8, 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.
Movies
A Trip to the Moon
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon...
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The Impossible Voyage
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a j...
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The Cook in Trouble
A cook has his hands full with three mischievous devils, who pop in and out of his kitchen....
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Cinematógrafo 1900
Tribute to Segundo de Chomón. Semi-documentary featuring short films and appearances by actors who e...
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El hombre que quiso ser Segundo
The extraordinary life of cinema pioneer Segundo de Chomón....
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The Untamable Whiskers
The background of this picture represents a scene along the beautiful river Seine in Paris. A gentle...
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The Infernal Cauldron
A green-skinned demon places a woman and two courtiers into a flaming cauldron....
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The One-Man Band
A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first ...
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The Four Troublesome Heads
One of the greatest of black art pictures. The conjurer appears before the audience, with his head i...
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A Midnight Episode
A sleeping apartment of a friend who retires for the night. The rays of the moon are shining upon th...
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Joan of Arc
A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she ...
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A Terrible Night
A man tries to get a good night's sleep, but is disturbed by a giant spider that leaps onto his bed,...
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Le château hanté
A man has an encounter with several spooky apparitions in a castle that is evidently owned by the De...
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The Indian Sorcerer
A sorcerer turns a small egg into a bigger one and keeps repeating this trick until the egg is large...
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Cinderella
A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach...
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The Conquest of the Pole
A science fantasy film that deals with an extraordinary race to the north pole by rival parties of b...
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The Wandering Jew
A Jew who mocked Jesus on the cross is visited by a devil and an angel....
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Le manoir du diable
In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre c...
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The Cinemagician, Georges Méliès
A look back at the life, style and influences of the famed filmmaker Georges Méliès and an examinati...
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A Desperate Crime
A man is murdered and the killer brought to justice by guillotine. This film is partly lost....
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Delirium in a Studio
The opening title card explains that a painter has just finished his work when his assistant comes i...
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The Wonderful Living Fan
As a conjurer awaits an audience, a procession announces the arrival of a royal representative, carr...
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The Monster
An Egyptian prince has lost his beloved wife and he has sought a dervish who dwells at the base of t...
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The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship
An inventor dreams that his newly designed airship takes flight....
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The Temptation of St. Anthony
St. Anthony is tempted by visions of women, including one that is transformed from the image of Jesu...
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The Man with the Rubber Head
A chemist carries out a bizarre experiment with his own head....
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The Devil in a Convent
A priest is officiating at a convent, when suddenly he is transformed into the devil, who frightens ...
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Long Distance Wireless Photography
Into a photography studio full of large fantastic machines steps an elderly couple. The bearded prop...
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An Up-to-Date Conjurer
A film from Méliès has him playing a magician who does a few tricks including making a woman disappe...
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The Merry Frolics of Satan
Two travellers are tormented by Satan from inn to inn and eventually experience a buggy ride through...
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The Dreyfus Affair
The first movie ever censored for political reasons. The title refers to the then contemporaneous Dr...
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The Infernal Cake-Walk
Pluto, having seen the earth, comes back home amazed at the success of that well-known dance, the "c...
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The Clockmaker's Dream
A weary clock-maker dozes off in a chair. While he is asleep, three women suddenly appear in the mid...
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The Melomaniac
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music....
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Summoning the Spirits
A bearded man hangs up a wreath and, like any good magician, waves his hands inside of it and under ...
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Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjurer
A Chinese conjurer stands next to a table, it becomes two tables. A fan becomes a parasol, lanterns ...
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The Human Pyramid
Méliès appears as a court jester (a “triboulet” in French). He pulls 18th century noblemen out of a ...
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Going to Bed Under Difficulties
A man takes off his clothes in preparation for bed, only for new clothes to spontaneously generate, ...
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Up-to-Date Spiritualism
In this subject a "comique eccentric" enters the drawing room inhabited by spirits. He tries to take...
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Jupiter's Thunderballs
With godly entrapments, Zeus appears on the horizon, engages Hermes as an audience, and tries to thr...
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The Terrible Turkish Executioner
In a public place in Constantinople at the corner of a bazaar, the executioner is seated upon a ston...
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The Bewitched Inn
A weary traveler stops at an inn along the way to get a good night's sleep, but his rest is interrup...
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Whimsical Illusions
In this hand-colored short, a magician and his assistant do a series of magic tricks, including maki...
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Bob Kick, the Mischievous Kid
A boy is led into the frame by two nursemaids who give him a big ball to play with. For the remainde...
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The Ballet Master's Dream
It's late in the evening, and the ballet master's bed has been prepared for him. But he cannot take ...
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The Prolific Magical Egg
A human skeleton is placed upon a table by an attendant. When the attendant leaves the room the skel...
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The Diabolical Church Window
Here we have an old scholar/alchemist brooding over a book, challenged by the devil, and going throu...
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Satan in Prison
The title is vital, since the bulk of the action consists of a well-dressed man magically producing ...
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Méliès: Tales of Terror
A compilation of three short trick films by Georges Méliès: El melómano (1903) (The Melomaniac aka T...
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The Doctor's Secret
Doctors blow to pieces a patient in a hydrotherapy machine and re-assemble him....
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The Oracle of Delphi
A box of valued jewels is placed inside the tomb of Delphi. A thief breaks into the tomb and steals ...
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The Dwarf and the Giant
A magician explores two halves of his self: The Dwarf and the Giant....
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A Moonlight Serenade
Pierrot goes to the house of his love to serenade her, but her father kicks him out. Soon the moon a...
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The Mysterious Retort
A wizard sleeps at a table in his well-appointed sitting room. From a drawer in the table, a snake a...
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Playing Cards
Three friends are playing cards in a beer garden. One of them orders drinks. The waitress comes back...
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An Impossible Balancing Feat
A magician along with three doppelgangers perform an elaborate balancing act....
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Every Man His Own Cigar Lighter
Only 8 surviving seconds of a man getting great pleasure from smoking a cigar....
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Bluebeard
A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died un...
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The Witch
A penniless troubadour consults witch Carabosse about his future, but offends her by paying with a b...
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Faust in the Underworld
The German legend of a scholar's unholy pact with the Devil would have been very familiar to most mo...
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The Treasures of Satan
The setting of this fantastic scene represents the hall of an old chateau in which a miser has locke...
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The Devil and the Statue
At the beginning of the scene Romeo in his gondola sings to Juliet a sentimental song, then goes awa...
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The Mysterious Knight
A knight performs several magic tricks with a disembodied head materialized from a chalkboard drawin...
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The Artist and the Dummy
A very simple gag film as a young lady substitutes herself for a dummy in order to play a practical ...
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The Christmas Dream
The entire story of Christmastide is here depicted. The scene opens in a large boudoir of an apparen...
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Good Glue Sticks
A peddler of "the best glue" sets up his outdoor stall. A crowd gathers for a demonstration. As he g...
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The Mystical Flame
A juggler enters upon the scene, picks up a skull, throws it into the air, catches it in his hands, ...
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Gala Méliès
Lost in the streets of Paris, Georges Méliès is looking everywhere for the Salle Pleyel. On the wall...
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The Kingdom of the Fairies
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch sud...
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The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon
In this film, Méliès concocts a combination fairy- and morality tale about the foolishness of trying...
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The Brahmin and the Butterfly
A man attempts to engender a transformation of a giant worm into a butterfly....
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The Temple of the Sun
A high nobleman finds himself in the Temple of the Sun, where he meets Mascarille, who proposes hims...
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The Knight of the Snow
One of the last films Georges Méliès made. By now, he was under contract for his former rival Pathé,...
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The Magic Lantern
Two impish clowns construct a magic lantern. They prop it up at an angle, and use it to project pict...
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The film, a parody of the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, follows a fish...
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Pygmalion and Galatea
Showing Pygmalion at work in his studio on the statue of Galatea, who, on being completed, comes to ...
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Tunneling the English Channel
The plot follows King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under ...
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A Nightmare
A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon....
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Naval Combat in Greece
An officer calls his sailors to the deck. They assemble around the canon while the officer scans the...
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Violons d'Ingres
Shows hobbies of people who do an ordinary job in the day. Made for New York Fair....
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The Extraordinary Voyage
An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing stor...
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The Devilish Plank
A magic trick is performed with a long plank with two pots built into it, both with holes in the bot...
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Tit for Tat
Georges Melies the magician. Melies removes his own head, puts it in a glass box on a stool, then gr...
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Conjuring
The film reproduces a magic act Méliès performed at his Paris theater-of-illusions, the Théâtre Robe...
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The Christmas Angel
A poor family in a rundown house where snow falls through the broken roof, there's no coal to heat t...
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Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants
Georges Méliès' adaptation of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is most distinguished, today, fo...
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The Human Fly
This is a moving picture that moves. Positively the greatest magical picture ever offered. A Hindoo ...
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The Prince of Magicians
A magician does tricks with the aid of his assistant, the Human Pump....
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A Wager Between Two Magicians, or, Jealous of Myself
A performing magician divides into two people. The doubles then take turns doing tricks before mergi...
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Cleopatra's Tomb
A lost film. A man digging inside an Egyptian tomb chops up a mummy, then resurrects the woman insid...
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Robinson Crusoe
Georges Méliès adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, the first film adaptation of the story. Filmed in blac...
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The Palace of the Arabian Nights
A poor but honest man wins great wealth, and the hand of a beautiful princess, after facing a series...
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The Mysterious Box
As scene as pleasing as incomprehensible. A juggler summons two chairs, which come to the stage jump...
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The Wizard, the Prince and the Good Fairy
A prince gets the help of a fairy to aid in his conflict with a wizard....
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Tribulations; or, The Misfortunes of a Cobbler
The Merchant, the Farrier, and the Roman accompany a mysterious woman into a magical cave full of te...
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The Pillar of Fire
A devil wearing bat-like wings and brandishing a trident dances around a giant pot, conjuring forth ...
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The Méliès Mystery
A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director...
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Misfortune Never Comes Alone
The scene takes place in front of a barrack, where a young soldier is on duty --most laughable and c...
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A Fantastical Meal
A family sits down to enjoy a meal that ends up being fraught with complications....
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The Triple Conjurer and the Living Head
A conjurer (along with two duplicates) conjure up (and then cause to vanish) a beautiful woman head-...
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The Magician
In this scene is shown a magician behind an ordinary table, upon which he suddenly and mysteriously ...
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The Famous Box Trick
A magician performs a series of magic tricks involving a boy and a box....
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The Fortune Favors the Brave
A young boy's adventure takes him to the domain of the Genie of the Cathedral Bell, where he finds a...
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Sure Cure for Indigestion
In this film, we show the interior of a doctor's office. A patient enters, and judging from the expr...
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Alcoléa & cie Documentary
Upon a visit to UVM's Lane Series in the Spring of 2022, Jean-Francois Alcolea offered to conduct a ...
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The Lilliputian Minuet
The film, of which only fragments are known to survive, features Méliès as a magician making playing...
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The Enchanted Basket
A farmer calls on a juggler to see a few of his best tricks. The juggler has brought a bouquet of fl...
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Beelzebub's Daughters
Beelzebub, making fire on the tips of his fingers, develops a large blaze, from which three girls em...
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Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus
An early horror treatment of the hero's encounter with the one-eyed man-eating Cyclops....
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French Cops Learning English
The seven-minute film takes place inside a classroom where some cops are learning English....
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Not Guilty
Three burglars invade a house, kill two people, and blind a third person, a woman. The police arrest...
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The King and the Jester
French short about King Francis I and his jester Triboulet, who form the basis for Hugo's play Le ro...
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The Magic of Méliès
A walk through the life and work of the brilliant French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861-1938), pione...
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The Good Luck of a 'Souse'
This film from George Melies is sadly one that's only available in fragments. The film starts off wi...
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The New Lord of the Village
There's a scene in a village, then there's a scene out in the wilderness with what appear to be gods...
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In the Barber Shop
One fine day at a barbershop that has stupid staff and very rude customers....
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Dancing in a Harem
Dancing in a Harem was an 1897 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's S...
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A Funny Mahometan
A Funny Mahometan was an 1897 short silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released b...
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A Trip to the Melisverse
A girl tries to concentrate on her homework, but when she realizes she can't, a wand appears out of ...
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The Bridegroom's Dilemma
A woman slips into her bed with the help of her servant. While the film is lost, there is a new digi...
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