duVoyage - Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma

Georges Meliès
1899
He makes a politically-oriented
film about the Dreyfus Affair
using ‘reconstructions
of actual events’. He plays the
role of Labori, one of Captain
Dreyfus’ lawyers.
1902
The film ‘A Trip to the Moon’
achieves worldwide success
and is widely copied in the
USA. Georges Méliès sends his
brother Gaston over there to
protect his interests and establish
his business on the
American market.
1902
France/Creation of the first
Pathé studio in Montreuil,
followed by two others, in
Vincennes and Montreuil. .
1904
Georges Méliès founds the
magicians’ trade association,
of which he remains the
chairman until the end of his
life.
1904
Pathé-Frères grows, opening a
subsidiary in New York.
1905-1906
Invention of film coloring
stencils (to replace the workshops
where films were handpainted
using a brush). Pathé
develops a mechanical stencil
coloring process.
1905
Popular ‘Nickelodeon’ theaters
spring up in America, with
programs changing daily.
1908
After his admission in 1907 to
the first cartel formed by
Edison to control American
production, which becomes an
industry, he is forced to increase
his production rate
and therefore builds Studio B
so that he can shoot two movies
in parallel.
Birth of motion picture
1908
End of the ‘Patent Wars’ in
which Edison took legal action
against all competitors in the
USA, resulting in the creation
of a trust: the Motion Picture
Patents Company.
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1909
He chairs the international
conference of film editors
in Paris.
1912
He makes his last film, ‘The
Bourrichon family’s journey’.
From 1896 to 1912, he makes
520 films, of which he is the
producer, distributor, writer,
set designer, director, and leading
actor. His latter films are
not as successful as he hoped
because of competition from
young filmmakers and their
modern ideas. He did not
create a company at any stage;
he always invested his own
money, and his finances end
up in a critical situation.
1909
International conference of
film producers, chaired by
Georges Méliès. The Edison
perforation is adopted as the
standard. Motion pictures are
no longer sold, but rented.
1913
His wife dies and he closes
down both studios for good.
The showing of his movies in
the USA and the movies made
by his brother Gaston provide
him with some income when
the Robert-Houdin theater
(like every other theater)
closes in 1914 because of the
First World War.
1917-1922
He converts Studio B to a variety
theater, directed by his
daughter Georgette. He ends
up playing over a hundred
different roles there, alongside
his son and daughter and
other actors and opera singers.
1923
Georges Méliès is bankrupt.
He sells his Montreuil property
to pay his debts. The
same year, the Robert-Houdin
theater, which he had directed
continuously until the
outbreak of the First World
War, is expropriated and demolished
for the extension of
Boulevard Haussmann.
1925
Georges Méliès marries Jehanne
d’Alcy (the widow Manieux),
one of his former performers
at the Robert-Houdin
theater and then a movie actress.
She currently runs a
store selling toys and candy in
the concourse of Montparnasse
Station.
1929
Georges Méliès is honored at
a gala event held at the Pleyel
hall, Paris, in December.
1931
Louis Lumière presents him
with the Cross of the Legion of
Honor.
1932
France is experiencing a serious
economic crisis, and the
toy store is not making a profit.
Georges Méliès, his wife,
and his granddaughter Madeleine
are invited to live at
Orly castle, which belongs to
the Mutuelle du Cinéma.
1938
Georges Méliès dies in Paris
on January 21 st .
Much earlier…
The physiological effect of retinal persistence was observed by Isaac Newton and
Patrick (le Chevalier) d’Arcy and in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. This defect of the eye,
combined with the brain’s ability to interconnect several separate images, makes it
possible to create simulated motion. The first scientific demonstration of this effect is
the Faraday wheel in 1830, followed by other devices, such as the Thaumatrope, the Phenakistiscope,
the Zootrope, the Praxinoscope, etc. These were quite commonly marketed
as toys from 1850 onward. Austrian general Franz von Uchatius enhanced the technique
with a projection system in 1853, inspired by magic lanterns, an ancestor of the
projector, in existence since the 17 th century. The birth of photography took place in 1839
thanks to Jacques Daguerre. The next step was to combine these devices that recreate
motion with the concept of photography.
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