1899 Anno Quattro Capitolo 3: Il cinema come arte dello spettacolo / Cinema as a Performing Art

Cendrillon. Georges Méliès as Father Time. Wikipedia: "Based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, released by Star Film Company, numbered 219–224 in its catalogues, advertised as "une grande féerie extraordinaire en 20 tableaux." Mlle Barral as Cinderella. Bleuette Bernon as the Fairy Godmother. Carmelli as the Prince. Jehanne d'Alcy as the Prince's mother, the Queen. Dupeyron as a party guest. Georges Méliès as the genie of the midnight clock, and as a halberdier. The film's visual style was modeled on the engravings of Gustave Doré. The direct inspiration for the film of Cinderella was probably a stage adaptation premiered in 1896 by the Théâtre de la Galerie-Vivienne and played by the Troupe Raymond at Méliès's own theatre of illusions, the Théatre Robert-Houdin, at Christmastime of 1897. Méliès may also have been inspired by the Théâtre du Châtelet's lavish 1895 stage production of the story. Méliès's first film with multiple scenes (tableaux), using six distinct sets and five changes of scene within the film. (His catalogue, by dividing the action into smaller beats, lists twenty tableaux within the film, a generous numbering probably devised for publicity reasons.) So many extras were used in Cinderella that Méliès designated a Chief Extra to lead them. Cinderella was Méliès's first major cinematic success. It did well both in French fairground cinemas and at European and American music-halls, and inspired Méliès to create other lavishly designed storytelling films with multiple scenes."

1899: Cinema as a performing art.
Musical interpretation: Stephen Horne at the grand piano and the accordeon.
Introduce Mariann Lewinsky.
Viewed at Sala Mastroianni, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 25 June 2019.

Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "So many scientists, industrialists, mechanics and photographers, plus a number of producers, camera operators and directors played a part in the invention and development of cinematography. But there has been only one Georges Méliès. Like the magic homme-orchestre of his own invention he played all the parts of artistic and managerial functions necessary to run a theatre and to make and sell films."

"Maybe the point is not so much that he introduced soit-disant fiction to cinematography and vice versa or invented fundamental technical tricks such as the scene change by dissolve in Cendrillon or that his films are fun. Maybe the films of this singular artist are only a superficial and very incomplete record of a prodigal productive energy. But they channel enough reality of 1899 to make a tangible encounter with Méliès possible and to transport us into his realm, the evanescent empire of 19th century entertainment."

"If you need early films to be useful you may find Cendrillon a cue to talk about fairground cinema or the féerie. Otherwise you can simply marvel at how he packed an evening’s extravaganza into less than six minutes and still included four ballets – aristocratic Rococo, uncanny clocks and clock-spirits, idyllic youth with their onstage violinist and a classic ballerina’s solo – several transformations and a spectacular apothéose. Méliès appears too, unrecognisable in his disguise as the clock sprite." Mariann Lewinsky

Le Portrait mystérieux • Cendrillon • L’Illusioniste fin-de siècle • Danse du feu

Le Portrait mystérieux, avec Georges Méliès. Wikipedia: "Star Film Company number 196: "une grande nouveauté photographique extraordinaire". A magician displays an empty picture frame against a stage backdrop, including posters on the wall. Unrolling this backdrop to reveal another, he places a neutral canvas and a stool inside the picture frame. With a gesture, the magician makes his own image come slowly into focus in the frame. It comes immediately to life, and the magician and his image hold a conversation before the image fades out of focus and disappears again. Méliès himself plays the magician in the film. The posters on the wall advertise his own Paris theatre of illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. Effects in the film were created using the substitution splice, two multiple exposures, dissolves, and defocusing the lens to create a soft focus effect. The portrait effect is an early example of a matte effect in filmmaking, in which a mask over the lens ensured that only a specific section of the image in view would be filmed and exposed. Matting had been used in still photography since the 1850s, when photographers such as Henry Peach Robinson and Oscar Gustave Rejlander used them to compose painting-like scenes. The first filmmaker to take advantage of it was likely the British cinematic pioneer George Albert Smith (who knew of Méliès through their mutual colleague Charles Urban). Méliès continued to experiment with matting techniques in later films, such as The One Man Band and A Spiritualist Photographer."

Le Portrait mystérieux.
Georges Méliès. Prod.: Star Film (n. 219-224), 35 mm. D.: 10’. Bn. Copy: BFI Film and Television Archive.
    AA: A wonderful magic film, a meta reflection relevant to the Cocteau tradition. From a worn source.

Cendrillon.
Prod.: Star Film (n. 219-224) 35 mm. D.: 10’. Bn. Director: Georges Méliès. Year: 1899. Country: Francia. Copy from BFI.
    AA: Cinderella was Georges Méliès's first multi-tableau film and his first great commercial success film. Une féerie in cardboard sets, with a delight in naivism, and a constant sence of choreography, rhythm and dance, like a silent musical or ballet production. A fantasy of metamorphoses. Central is time itself, with Méliès as Father Time, an ancient man showing that the time is out. Visual quality: from a duped and scratched source far from the original.

L’Illusioniste fin de siècle. Wikipedia: "An Up-to-Date Conjurer / An Up-to-Date Conjuror / L'Impressionniste fin de siècle / The Conjurer. A conjuror and a ballet dancer perform a quick series of magic acts, including disappearances, reappearances, and transformations. Méliès plays the conjuror. The special effects in the film were created using sophisticated substitution splices, with the shots carefully cut and matched together to allow the mid-motion transformations to seem smooth. Méliès made two versions of An Up-to-Date Conjuror, with a different dancer and different scenery, as well as slight variations in the action. Star Film Company number 183. A print of the film had been rediscovered by 1947, when it was screened by the San Francisco Museum of Art. The other, less commonly available version of the film, with the different dancer and scenery, was discovered later and screened in July 2011 at the conference "Méliès, carrefour des attractions" at the Centre culturel international de Cerisy-la-Salle."

L’Illusioniste fin de siècle.
Prod.: Star Film (n. 183). DCP 4K restaurato. D.: 1’. Bn. Director: Georges Méliès. Year: 1899. Country: Francia. Copy from La Cinémathèque française.
    AA: A film of magic in which the conjuror brings a doll alive, turns her into flakes, loses himself, and turns into a ballerina, running and jumping and standing still. Restored in 4K in 2013 by La Cinémathèque française, tinted yellow.

Danse du feu. Wikipedia: "The Pillar of Fire / Haggard's "She" – The Pillar of Fire / La Colonne de feu. A devil cavorts in a large fireplace, kindling a fire. Out of a giant skillet rises a young woman in voluminous white robes. As smoke rises in the fireplace, the woman begins a serpentine dance. Her skirts take on the appearance of flames until, finally, she disappears in a burst of fire. The Pillar of Fire was the first film to be based on H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She: A History of Adventure. Rather than attempting to tell the whole story of the novel, Méliès used one of its characters as inspiration for a trick film, recalling the scene in the novel in which Ayesha stands amid flames. Star Film Company number 188. Offered in a hand-colored print with coloring designed and directed by Elisabeth Thuillier."

Danse du feu.
Prod.: Star Film (n. 188). DCP. D.: 1’. Col. Director: Georges Méliès. Year: 1899. Country: Francia. Copy from Lobster Films.
    AA: Jehanne d'Alcy as the screen's first Ayesha, portraying the dance of fire in a scene inspired by H. Rider Haggard's She. A serpentine dance in Méliès style, seen in a DCP based on a source with hand-colouring by Elisabeth Thuillier.