How well do you know
Georges Méliès?
Georges Méliès
🎂 Dec 8, 1861 — 🕯️ Jan 21, 1938 (76 years)
Paris, France
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.
76R.I.P.
0Oscars
229Directed
0Series
76 R.I.P.
R.I.P.
0
Oscars
229
Directed
0
TV Directed
Movies
A Trip to the Moon
1902
The Impossible Voyage
1904
Cinderella
1899
Robinson Crusoe
1902
Peeping Tom
1897
Le manoir du diable
1896
The Kingdom of the Fairies
1903
The Scheming Gambler's Paradise
1905
The Spider and the Butterfly
1909
The Living Playing Cards
1905
The Astronomer's Dream
1900
The Infernal Cauldron
1903
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1907
The Infernal Cake-Walk
1903
The Vanishing Lady
1896
The Devil in a Convent
1899
The Witch's Revenge
1903
Le château hanté
1897
The Conquest of the Pole
1912
The Dwarf and the Giant
1901
The Palace of the Arabian Nights
1905
Not Guilty
1908
The Miser
1908
Bob Kick, the Mischievous Kid
1903
Long Distance Wireless Photography
1908
The Prince of Magicians
1901
The Four Troublesome Heads
1898
The Mermaid
1904
The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship
1905
His First Job
1908
The Doctor's Secret
1909
The Magic Book
1900
The Christmas Dream
1900
Naval Combat in Greece
1897
The Mysterious Box
1903
The Magician's Cavern
1901
The Firefall
1904
A Mesmerian Experiment
1905
Bluebeard
1901
Cleopatra's Tomb
1899
A Nightmare
1896
Soap Bubbles
1906
Faust and Marguerite
1904
The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon
1907
The Bewitched Inn
1897
Joan of Arc
1900
The Christmas Angel
1904
A Terrible Night
1896
Devil's Island - Within the Palisade
1899
Satan in Prison
1907
TRIVIA
How well do you know Georges Méliès?
▶
Play trailer
Latest Trailer
El hombre que quiso ser Segundo
Photos & Roles
Georges Méliès
1861-12-08 · Paris, France
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.