Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

Television Filmography
1999 Histoires d’Objets (segments “S’éclairer,”
“S’attabler,” “Travailler,” “S’asseoir”)
Chambre No. 13 (segment “Douze + un(e)”)
2001 Les Redoutables (segment “Doggy Dog”)
2005 Pin Up Obsession (documentary)
Instant d’une Vie / Martin Grant (documentary)
2006 Sable noir (episode “La Maison de ses Rêves”;
also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-dialogist)
MÉLIÈS, GEORGES (Marie Georges Jean Méliès
/ December 8, 1861, Paris, France–January 21, 1938,
Paris)
The son of a wealthy footwear manufacturer, he
enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and
completed his studies of art in London, where he
also became involved in conjuring. Having returned
to Paris, he briefl y worked with his father but spent
most of his time creating automatons. He earned a
living as a caricaturist under the pseudonym of Geo
Smile. In 1888, he bought back the Robert Houdin
Theatre, where he gave performances as an illusionist
(Cendrillon; La Poudre de Perlimpimpin; Michel Strogoff;
Les Pilules du Diable; Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours;
Robinson Crusoe; Les Mille et une Nuits). In December
1895, he was at one of the fi rst showings of the
Lumière Cinematographe at the Grand Café and
offered 100,000 francs to Louis Lumière in return
for the projector / camera. Unfortunately, Lumière
declined his proposal. Thanks to British fi lm pioneer
Robert William Paul, he managed to get a Bioscop
projector. Then he founded his production company,
Star Film. In 1897, he built the fi rst French studio in
Montreuil. For a dozen years, he was a successful
producer and director, but the evolution of the cinematographic
business was unfavorable to him, and
after several commercial failures, he went bankrupt.
In 1926, he married the star of several of his fi lms,
Jeanne d’Alcy (1865–1956), who ran a toy store at
the Montparnasse railway station. In the late 1920s,
journalists and fi lm historians brought him and his
work out of oblivion. In 1931, Louis Lumière presented
him the Legion of Honor Medal. His autobiography,
Mes Mémoires, written in 1937, was published
fi rst in the Italian review Cinema and then in French
as an annex to the book Georges Méliès, Mage (Maurice
Bessy, Lo Duca, Editions Prisma, Paris, 1945). He
appeared in Jacques-Bernard Brunius’s short Violon
d’Ingres (1939). In 1988, several of his movies were remade
and gathered under the title Méliès 88 (shorts,
MÉLIÈS, GEORGES • 697
episode “Rêve d’Artiste,” Pierre Etaix; Les Sept Péchés
capitaux, Philippe Gautier; Le Topologue, Marc Caro; Le
Rêve du Radja, Jean-Louis Bertucelli; Le Duel, Zbigniew
Rybczynski; Le Cauchemar d’un Inventeur, Maurizio
Nichetti; Gulliver, Jean-Pierre Mocky).
Filmography
1896 Arrivée d’un Train—Gare de Joinville (short)
Arrivée d’un Train—Gare de Vincennes (short)
L’Arroseur (short)
Baignade en Mer (short)
Barque sortant de Trouville (short)
Bateaux-Mouches sur la Seine (short)
Batteuse à Vapeur (short)
Bébé et Fillettes (short)
Le Bivouac (short)
Les Blanchisseuses (short)
Bois de Boulogne—Porte de Madrid (short)
Bois de Boulogne—Touring-Club (short)
Boulevard des Italiens (short)
Campement de Bohémiens / USA: The Bohemian
Encampment (short)
Le Cauchemar / USA: A Nightmare (short)
Les Chevaux de Bois (short)
Chicot, Dentiste américain (short)
Cortège du Tzar allant à Versailles (short)
Cortège du Tzar au Bois de Boulogne (short)
Couronnement de la Rosière (short)
Danse serpentine (short)
Déchargement de Bateaux: Le Havre (short)
Défense d’affi cher / USA: Post No Bills (short)
Départ des Automobiles (short)
Départ des Offi ciers (short)
Dessinateur: Chamberlain (short)
Dessinateur express: M. Thiers (short)
Dessinateur: Reine Victoria (short)
Dessinateur: Von Bismarck (short)
Dix Chapeaux en Soixante Secondes / USA: Conjurer
Making Ten Hats in Sixty Seconds (short)
Effet de Mer sur les Rochers (short)
Enfant jouant sur la Plage (short)
Escamotage d’une Dame chez Robert Houdin /
UK: The Vanishing Lady / USA: The Conjuring of
a Woman at the House of Robert Houdin (short;
also actor, editor)
Le Fakir: Mystère indien (short)
Les Forgerons / UK and USA: Blacksmiths in His
Workshop (short)
La Gare Saint-Lazare (short)
Grandes Manœuvres (short)
Les Haleurs de Bateaux (short)