Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 2, 2007 1:51:37 GMT
Georges Méliès (1861-1938)>>> _1. A Trip to the Moon 1902 >>> _2. The Man With the Rubber Head 1901 >>> _3. Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon 1907 >>> _4. The Black Devil 1905 >>> _5. Four Heads Better Than One 1898 >>> _6. The Magic Lantern 1903 >>> _7. The Infernal Boiling Pot 1903 >>> _8. Culinary Sorcery 1904 >>> _9. The One-Man Band 1900 >>> 10. The Monster 1903 >>> 11. Untamable Whiskers 1904 >>> 12. The Scheming Gambler's Paradise 1905
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 2, 2007 2:02:30 GMT
Though there are certainly cases to be made for Robert W. Paul, G.A. Smith, and many others working at the same time, I think Méliès canbe considered as the first real auteur of the medium... I also think he's the one who seems so entrenched and absorbed by the recurring preoccupations in his work that he would have been an artist regardless of Cinema. On the one hand, his films are very stage-like, in composition, in the lavish set production and detail, and the way acts and events seem to merely unfold at their own will without any intrusion from cinematic tools such as a moving camera, cut-aways or close-ups that formed the basis for a more manipulative means of narration, which become prominent more or less with Griffith in the early 1910's. But on the other hand, there's something attractive in this way of information-giving. It intrigues the eye but never controls it; there's no way of focusing attention into one particular action. Even in the one-actor shorts the frame is usually littered - no, crammed - with excessive detail that numerous viewings are appropriate and justified. But when he's working with more than several actors at once, it's like an incredibly-crafted comic strip, with so much going on you want to see it again straight after. Somebody could be throwing somebody else into a cauldron, and fire could be exploding out of it, but you don't even notice. Shoddy storytelling, perhaps? Very muddled, I'd say, but then Méliès himself said that, "Scenario is an excuse to show tricks and spectacle." He also said, "Cinema is an invention without any future". And there seems something lost now in the rich, suggestive and rather quite daring (and definitely abstract) forming of meaning in Éclipse. But it is especially relevant to return to Méliès's work both as newbies, as film historians, and/or as film fans - under that I'd also list filmmakers. It seems especially relevant in the wake of The Prestige's release last year, a film which takes Cinema back into the realms of tricks and magic... because illusion is its main attraction, right?
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Pherdy
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Post by Pherdy on Apr 12, 2007 17:06:03 GMT
the ones I saw (or that I know of):
Le Voyage dans la lune L'Homme orchestre L'Homme à la tête en caoutchouc Les Cartes vivantes La Chaise a porteur enchantée
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RNL
Global Moderator
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Post by RNL on Apr 12, 2007 20:35:44 GMT
1. A Trip to the Moon (1902) 8/10
No doubt I can find oodles of his shorts on eMule. Probably even on YouTube.
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Pherdy
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Post by Pherdy on Apr 12, 2007 21:05:33 GMT
1. Le voyage dans la lune 1902 No doubt I can find oodles of his shorts on eMule. Probably even on YouTube. even imdb (links at least)
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Capo
Administrator
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Post by Capo on Apr 13, 2007 21:03:48 GMT
Most of the ones above are available on YouTube.
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Boz
Published writer
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Post by Boz on Apr 13, 2007 21:07:06 GMT
Nice 'stache, if nothing else.
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Post by Anasazie on Nov 16, 2008 0:05:27 GMT
Embarrasingly only one!
1. Voyage to the Moon (1902) 8/10
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Post by quentincompson on Nov 16, 2008 20:35:58 GMT
1.A Trip to the Moon 8/10
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