Charlie Chaplin said he was “the alchemist of light.” Widely regarded as the father of special effects, French filmmaker Georges-Jean Méliès was a pioneering genius who used magical special effects multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted colour to create a series of brilliant short films in the early 1890’s and 1900s. Best known for A Trip to The Moon in which a spaceship crashed into the moon’s face Méliès directed over 500 films between 1896 and 1913.
He fell in love with cinema after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers’ invention of the cinematograph. When they refused to sell him a camera he built his own as well as a glass-enclosed studio near Paris, where he filmed short films using imaginative sets and designs. These newly restored tinted color classics also include soundtracks by various musicians.
Program includes:
The Pillar of Fire (“La Danse Du Feu,” 1899, 1 min)
A Trip to the Moon (“Le Voyage Dans La Lune,” 1902, 15 min)
The Kingdom of Fairies (“Le Royaume Des Fées,” 1903, 17 min)
The Infernal Cauldron (“Le Chaudron Infernal,” 1903, 2 min)
The Inventor Crazybrain and His Wonderful Airship (“Le Dirigeable Fantastique,” 1905, 3 min)
The Merry Frolics of Satan (“Les Quat’cents Farces du Diable,” 1906, 22 min)
The Diabolic Tenant (“Un Locataire Diabolique,” 1906, 8 min)
Cinematheque at Home – curated by the Cinematheque – will offer new theatrical releases every week which our audiences can pay to stream through our website (by clicking the ‘buy tickets’ button). This is not only an opportunity for our patrons to see new cinema, but is an important way that they can continue to support independent film during this pandemic.
