The Father of Special Effects: Georges Méliès

I love cinema. Everything about it fascinates me. And while today the industry is largely dominated by Hollywood or even Bollywood, I believe no country has pioneered cinema more than France. And one person, in particular, has made cinema the art form that it is today, Georges Méliès.

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

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Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was born on December 8th, 1861. He developed a lifelong passion for magic while visiting the Egyptian Hall in London. When his father retired, he sold his share of the shoe business to his brothers and used the money to buy the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. There he met performer Jehanne D'Alcy, who quickly became his mistress and muse.

On December 28th, 1895, Méliès attended a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' cinematograph, an early version of the modern camera and projector. As they refused to sell, Méliès traveled to London to purchase an Animatograph, which he soon reversed engineered into a camera. In Autumn of that same year, an event occurred that would change the face of cinema. While filming a bus, Méliès’ camera jammed, which took him a few minutes to repair. By the time the camera started working again, the bus was replaced by a hearse, creating a transformation effect. Méliès had discovered special effects. He then invented the first double exposure, going as far as using seven multiple exposures at once, the first split-screen, and first dissolve and even the first graphic manipulations.

At the end of 1896, Méliès founded the Star Film Company and built a studio in the outskirts of Paris. There, he directed the very first horror movie in history, The Devil's Castle. Later that year, more than half a century before Walt Disney, Méliès made the first movie adaptation of Cinderella. This movie was his call to fame as it became widely popular in both Europe and the United States. He became especially interested in using perspective in order to make characters and objects change in size, an effect that would be used more than a century later by Peter Jackson in Lord of the Rings.

This, along with all the other illusions he had perfected throughout the years, would be used in his masterpiece, “A Trip to the Moon”, Méliès instant 1902 classic loosely based on “From the Earth to the Moon” by Jules Verne. The movie is considered the first science-fiction film ever and is simply spectacular. He even went as far as having each frame painted to make the first colored movie. The movie was a smashing success, especially in the US, but, unfortunately, Méliès didn’t get to enjoy most of his international success as film producers such as Sigmund Lubin and Thomas Edison made a fortune by selling illegal copies of his movies.

But by 1905, his féerie style that he was known for was growing less and less popular and in 1908, his film studio, Star Film Company was pressured into joining Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company under threat of being sued for patent infringement as Edison held most patents related to cinematography. Under the terms of his contract, Méliès was forced to supply the conglomerate 1,000 feet of film per week. Obviously, such a rush for production meant that the quality of his movies significantly deteriorated.

Two years later, Méliès made a deal with film distributor Charles Pathé. In exchange for a large sum of money to produce and direct movies, Pathé held the right to distribute and edit them. He also held the right to Méliès’ home and studio. A series of box office flops would force Méliès to break his contract in 1912 and Pathé was able to take over Star Films and the Studio. In a fit of rage, Méliès decided to burn his costumes, sets, and above all, his movies, which as a result were long thought to have been lost to the world… but fortunately, over 200 hundred of his movies have been rediscovered.

In 1925, Méliès married his long-time mistress, Jehanne d'Alcy, but by then he was forgotten and financially ruined as the couple barely scraped by operating a small candy and toy stand in the Gare Montparnasse in Paris. Fortunately, throughout the end of the 20s, journalists took interest in him and eventually a Gala of appreciation was made on December 1929. Finally, in October 1931, he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, the highest honor in France. Yet, Méliès died in poverty of cancer on May 21st, 1938 at 76.