Georges Méliès: Gugusse et l'automate / [Gugusse and the Automaton] (1897) 2026 digital transfer Library of Congress

Georges Méliès: Gugusse et l’automate [Gugusse and the Automaton] (FR 1897) starring Georges Méliès (to the left) as the machine operator. Photo: Library of Congress, Culpeper, VA.

GUGUSSE ET L’AUTOMATE [Gugusse and the Automaton] (FR 1897). dir, scen, ed: Georges Méliès. cast: Georges Méliès. prod: Georges Méliès, Star-Film. copy: DCP, 1'05" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 50 ft, 18 fps); no titles. source: Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus, Culpeper, VA (Frisbee [William DeLyle] Collection).

    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone 2026: Rediscoveries.

    Grand piano: Stephen Horne.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, 3 Oct 2026

Rose Albayat (GCM 2026) "The rediscovery in 2025 of the long-lost Georges Méliès film Gugusse et l’automate is a significant discovery in early cinema. The nitrate print’s owner, Bill McFarland of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the great-grandson of an itinerant showman; it was found inside a treasure chest with ten other reels and subsequently donated to the Library of Congress. Méliès’s upbringing in a diverse range of creative practices was essential to his later work as the owner-director of the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, and later as a cinéaste. During his tenure as the Theatre’s director (1888-1914), Méliès exhibited some automata from Robert-Houdin’s repertoire. His versatility extended beyond the magic theatre: in 1897 Méliès built the first film studio in the garden of the Méliès property in Montreuilsous-Bois. Rather than utilizing the space solely for filming and discovering new visual effects, the showman also adapted it as a workshop to construct sets and paint backdrops. Méliès’s engagement with automata likewise extended beyond the theatre and into his films. The word “Gugusse” derives from the name “Auguste,” a type of clown described by Pascal Jacob: “He imposes a form of fragility linked to childhood and develops a particular vocabulary where candour and naivety mingle, but also greed, a playful instinct and a liking for dissimulation with no consequences.” (https://cirque-cnac.bnf.fr/en/clowns/clown-characters/auguste) Gugusse et l’automate features an intricately detailed painted background depicting what appears to be a workshop filled with clocks and tools. The film begins abruptly with Méliès performing as a madcap machine operator turning the crank and miming what is about to befall the pierrot automaton. With a series of visible substitution splices, a camera trick pioneered by Méliès, the pierrot gradually grows to the size of the operator, escapes his control, and hits him with a long stick. The operator retaliates by removing the pierrot automaton from atop its stand and pummeling it with a giant mallet, reducing its size with each stroke. Already in 1897, Méliès’s absurd sense of humor revels in provoking his audience." – Rose Albayat

AA: In Georges Méliès's one minute movie we see the revolution of the robot and the lunatic operator taking back control. The word "robot" was actually coined by Karel Čapek only in 1920 in his play R.U.R. What we saw was perhaps the cinema's first foray into the mystique of the so-called "A.I." - in the spirit of Goethe's "Der Zauberlehrling" (1797) / "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".