The Méliès Brothers' Documentary Film

This undoubtedly most famous film by Georges Méliès is now available in its ultimate colourised version. It is a precise mise-en-scene for its time, with hints of editing, the inclusion of vertical movement and an unprecedented variety of settings. And, last but not least, it reflects the trends of the time. Méliès admitted that he was inspired to make the film by Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, and the Selenites were borrowed from the novel by H.G. Wells. This is no longer a theatrical performance as in his previous films, but is inspired by Jacques Offenbach's comic opera of 1875. At the same time, it is the quintessential cinema of attractions – there is not even a hint of character psychology, and the viewer's attention is to be focused only on the effects and the swelling visual scenes.

King Leopold II, famous for his automobile accidents, sets off on a two-hour Paris–Monte-Carlo journey. We are not watching a documentary reconstruction, but a fiction based on the passion of a well-known personality. It is a different positioning of Méliès' documentary approach – making films reflecting a reality that the audience does not need to be informed about because they are already familiar with it. This unique film uses pyrotechnic tricks, animation and the appearance of live animals.

Cambodia was the penultimate stop on Gaston Méliès' film journey around the world, and he made four feature films and three documentaries there. Most of them are set in the ruins of the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Today, no satisfactory explanation can be found for the sequence of images; there are obviously-staged shots of people riding elephants and what appears to be a fragment of an acted scene. Most of the footage is merely a descriptive contemplation of a sacred place untouched by the tourism industry.

This film is number 112 in the Star Film catalogue, making it one of the first films and one of the first so-called “newsreels”, as the director called them. Although shot entirely in the studio, it attempts to convey to the viewer the feelings that were probably experienced by a passenger on a boat between Calais and Dover. The chaos on board is likely to remind us of early French slapstick.

In the opening episode, we were witness to the writing of an arrest warrant. Now we watch the imprisonment on Devil's Islands in French Guiana. The text that accompanied the film is essential to understanding the plot. Fortunately, for many of Méliès's films, it has been preserved. Screenings will take place with a translation of these accompanying commentaries as written by the director himself.

Five films were made about the Spanish-American War, but only this one survives. After the explosion of the American battleship Maine (April 1898), the United States intervened against Spain in Cuba, the Philippines and off the island of Guam. This film documents the recovery of the bodies of sailors from the wreck.

Eleven unique films about the Dreyfus Affair were made by Georges Méliès in 1899. Two of them have most likely been lost forever. The films could be shown either in their entirety or separately and were conceived as such. It is impossible to understand the content of the films without knowing the context of the famous miscarriage of justice that unfolded for over a decade and whose protagonist was French military officer Alfred Dreyfus.

The director chose an episode from Dreyfus' private life, which logically achieved a strong emotional effect. Dreyfus had not seen his wife for four years, which in itself was tragic to the audience. For the first time, the character of the lawyer Labori appears here, played by the director himself, who also sided with the accused in real life. This episode is very important because it shows Méliès as a politically-minded man who was not afraid to express his views in public.

This episode mainly highlights the political background and the attempt to free Dreyfus. The series of films about the Dreyfus affair, among other things, clearly shows that Georges Méliès expressed his own political views in his films, while in others he expressed his views on social issues, such as crime. He is by no means merely a director of phantasmagorical games. This series is also an attempt to dissect a more complicated plot that carries a political message.

The most popular narrated or reconstructed news stories tended to be tragedy-related news, such as traffic accidents, shipwrecks, plane crashes or volcanic eruptions. This particular film is one of the most frequently-cited in film literature and was considered lost for almost a century. However, it is only a static shot of a mock-volcano and the city below it. We see rising smoke and eventually volcanic ash falling. This film is an example of period mass entertainment that, in hindsight, seems rather trivial.

In February 1913, Gaston Méliès left Cambodia for his last stop in Japan. There, his crew separated. Moreover, many more film companies were operating in the country. According to available information, we assume that he made two feature films (which were probably never distributed) and about twelve documentaries there. One was to be a unique recording of the production of samurai swords and examples of samurai traditions. However, the film about judo is probably the only one to have survived. Gaston in fact met with the founder of the sport, Kanō Jigorō, who gave him permission to film the members of the Kodokan school.

What makes this type of production completely unique is that Méliès is trying to make a film with a plot taking place before the invention of the cinema. The attempt at historical reconstruction may not be so obvious to contemporary viewers, although it was one of the main creative goals. It is also probably the very first filming of Joan's life. It is interesting to see which moments seemed essential to the author.

This episode is interesting because the director uses tricks in it to create the storm that accompanied the prisoner's disembarking. Georges Méliès liked to film reconstructed events, which he called “reconstructed news”. The Dreyfus Affair belongs to this genre in the catalogue of his company Star Film, and in it he strove to capture even the smallest details of the atmosphere. When watching it in sequence, we also become aware of the rising concern for Dreyfus's fate.

This brief overview of the life and work of Georges Méliès includes numerous excerpts from his films. It also consists of reconstructed scenes from the artist's life, featuring his son André (playing his father), Méliès' first wife and first film star Jeanne d'Alcy (A Trip to the Moon), and Méliès' collaborator François Lallement. Georges Franju also reconstructs the first film screening of the Lumière brothers. Although it is overall more of a memorial tribute, there are still a number of inspiring ideas and valuable shots, such as the ninety-year-old widow of the famous director laying flowers on her husband's grave.

In 1978, the son of the pioneering film director André Méliès tells the story of his famous father's life and career from the Chateau d'Orly, where the first great filmmaker spent his last years. It is a short television report, which is undoubtedly valuable above all for the authenticity of the testimony of a person who was one of the closest to Georges Méliès.

This highly acclaimed film is proof that Georges Méliès did indeed also shoot outdoors and is a rather pioneering work for its time. The camera is placed on the top of a moving train, capturing the passing landscape and “ducking” under bridges as we witness one of the first journeys on film, although the camera itself doesn’t move. Interestingly, this film is also listed in the Star Film catalogue as a newsreel.

This is one of the first films Méliès put in his sales catalogue. What we are watching, however, is essentially nothing more than a clever remake of a similar film by the Lumière brothers. Although we witness an elaborate mise-en-scene, its documentary nature is implicit in its intention to capture – in condensed form and as if incidentally – the ordinary behaviour of card players.

The episode of Colonel Henry’s suicide was famous for its bloody scene, in which the main protagonist slits his throat, and it’s not the only period gore film in Georges Méliès' filmography. More of such films can be found and can be associated with various genres. So far, the director has not changed the concept of the scene, faithfully following theatrical tradition. Only one setting corresponds to each episode.

From today's perspective, we would call this installment an “action episode”, as a murder takes place here. Given the year it was made, however, an even more interesting element is found in the masterful direction, which provides hints of depth of space. Multiple characters in the frame carry out different activities, and the killer's actual escape is handled in such a way that Méliès, perhaps unwittingly, for the first time breaks with the two-dimensional nature of his mise-en-scene and to some extent breaks with the theatrical tradition of filmmaking.

This is perhaps the most interesting newsreel in Méliès' filmography. It faithfully captures the coronation of King Edward VII. As a reenactment, it was commissioned by the English royal court. The premiere was set for the day of the coronation so that everything could “go live”. In the end, it was such a success that the King had it shown directly at Buckingham Palace and appreciated the accuracy of the reconstruction of the coronation ceremony, which in reality had to be cut short.

This last surviving episode is the longest and is an attempt at the most rigorous historical accuracy, which can only be understood with the help of the accompanying commentary, without which we only see the tribunal sitting in the background of the previous episode. The scene itself is almost motionless for two minutes, so the only clue is the description of the action, which we do not see. It is interesting to note that Dreyfus was not rehabilitated until 1906 (he was pardoned in the same year of the filming), and thus Georges Méliès wanted to contribute to his defence with this multi-part film.

This episode is similarly interesting. Although it gives a strong impression of slapstick, as the main movement consists of chaotic running-around, what undoubtedly catches the eye is the effect created by the journalists charging at the camera. This detail makes the whole scene unusually lively. On the other hand, we can see that the director was more concerned with the trial itself than with the suffering Dreyfus experienced in prison. It is also significant that the protagonist does not appear in all the episodes.

Gaston Méliès stayed in Tahiti for about a month while travelling to film on the surrounding islands, for example the island of Bora-Bora. We know many details about the whole Tahitian leg of his journey from the letters he sent to his son Paul in New York, who had stayed behind to arrange for the films to be distributed. As a result, we know the complete filmography despite the fact that the footage did not survive. We also know that, from the beginning, the director intended to mix together techniques of fiction and documentary film. In one of his letters, he mentions that the local population was already too civilised and therefore difficult to cast in films.

All three films from Tahiti are probably only fragments of their original versions. However, this one is unique in many ways. Gaston Méliès describes in a letter to his son that he came up with Mr. and Mrs. Mott so he could start filming during the voyage and document the progress of the journey. We then see the first shots of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. These are of great value, as in 1912 the town still had less than four thousand inhabitants. The fictional plot is more of an excuse to film, and because the couple are on a tourist trip, the film predominantly contains authentic footage – for example of the Tahitian queen, the fashion of the time or the streets and shops.

The second surviving film from Cambodia is the remarkable documentary footage of the Angkor Thom complex. Local cameraman Hugh McLung even had a platform built that allowed him to capture unique footage, which subsequently garnered an award from the King of Cambodia himself. The film crew spent roughly twenty days in Angkor. On the way back, they stopped in the capital of Phnom Penh, where Gaston Méliès was received by the King of Cambodia. Some footage of the local traditions was shot here as well, including a procession of elephants.

This is one of four films devoted to the Greek-Turkish war in 1897. The surrender itself took place in April. These reconstructed newsreels are undoubtedly a completely unique approach by a French director to the meaning of the term documentary. Based on available news reports, he attempts to provide a visual representation of events for a number of well-known occurrences without actually needing to provide additional factual information about them and relying solely on the audience's interest.

Another curious approach to documenting reality is Méliès' development of hypotheses about the possible causes of certain events. In this image, French President Armand Fallières and King Edward VII of England meet on a train. At night, the two have a fanciful dream about the construction of an undersea tunnel under the English Channel. As the two trains collide, the two politicians awaken and swear that no construction will ever take place. Let us not forget that at that time there were already over a hundred underwater tunnel projects. One of them is the underwater locomotive introduced in 1869 or the “tube bridge” proposed in 1875. In addition to the comic plot, the film is also notable for the fact that surviving copies contain intertitles, which actually began to appear in Méliès's work in the 1900s.

This is the last of the three surviving Tahitian films. This dramatic love story between a Tahitian and an American was distributed in the United States and Europe. Although the plot is trivial, it is exceptional in that the director did not cast a positive white male in the main role but, like his other films, has the Tahitians played by the locals, going against the conventions of the American film industry. Méliès consistently promoted these films as exclusive Tahitian productions, and his son strove to ensure wide distribution in the United States and Europe.