IN 1896, GEORGES MÉLIÈS WAS THE MAN WHO FIRST BROUGHT MAGIC TO CINEMA.
Writer, director, actor, magician, he was the first great storyteller of the moving image and the pioneer of special effects.
In 1937, a year before he died, he hand-wrote his autobiography in a 32-page document. He told the decades-long story of his central role in the creation of cinema and the subsequent fall which left him bankrupt and forgotten.
This is a first-hand account of the birth of cinema from its greatest innovator, an illuminating and eccentric testimony which has been out-of-print for many decades and never previously available in English.
WHAT'S IN THE BOOK?
A SPECIALLY COMMISSIONED ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF MÉLIÈS'S FULL ORIGINAL TEXT
AN EXPLORATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVING IMAGE PRE-MÉLIÈS
AN OVERVIEW OF MÉLIÈS'S FILMOGRAPHY
OF OVER 500 FILMS
'CINEMATIC VIEWS': A BRAND NEW TRANSLATION OF A 1907 ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MÉLIÈS
'THE OTHER MÉLIÈS': THE LITTLE-KNOWN STORY OF GEORGES'S BROTHER GASTON
INTERVIEWS WITH MÉLIÈS RESTORATION PIONEER SERGE BROMBERG, BFI SILENT FILM CURATOR BRYONY DIXON AND FILMMAKER MICHEL GONDRY
THIS EDITION IS A SPECIAL CLOTH-BOUND HARDBACK, WITH A SILVER STAMPED IMAGE OF MÉLIÈS'S ICONIC MOON ON THE COVER AND SILVER EMBOSSING ON THE SPINE AND BACK COVER.
Born in 1861, Méliès had already had a fascinating career as an engineer,
a magician, a builder of automatons and a theatre owner before the fateful
day he found himself in the basement of a Paris cafe watching the Lumière brothers demonstrate the moving image for the first time ever captured and projected on film.
Immediately obsessed with the possibility of this new medium, Méliès quickly became its pioneer. Known now as the father of sci-fi and fantasy cinema, he was the first to bring magic to the screen. He invented special effects techniques which are still used today and he created a whimsical, beautiful visual style which continues to influence artists all over the world.
Sadly, Méliès's dream crashed and burned, his film company STAR FILMS was declared bankrupt and his studio and home taken from him. Méliès died impoverished and betrayed by the industry he helped build.
A year before he died, he handwrote his autobiography, full of the stories of his great successes and reflections on his failures and his legacy. It is this document, translated into English for the first time, which the book THE LONG-LOST AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGES MÉLIÈS is built around.
MÉLIÈS SHOP
ALONG WITH THE BOOK, WE STOCK A SELECTION OF T-SHIRTS AND HOODIES. UNLIKE THE CHEAP PRINT-ON-DEMAND DIGITALLY PRINTED MÉLIÈS CLOTHES YOU'LL FIND ELSEWHERE ON THE INTERNET, THESE ARE IN-STOCK, HIGH-QUALITY SCREENPRINTED GARMENTS.
****The shop is currently closed for a few weeks, feel free to make purchases but please be aware that we won't be shipping orders out until July 25th 2021****
