Character Catalog

One of Méliès's earliest films exploiting the camera stop trick to make a woman disappear. This two-minute short lays the groundwork for trick cinematography and filmed illusionism.

A reenactment in 11 scenes of the Dreyfus trial, one of the first films to address current political events. A committed work shot from the Dreyfusard perspective, it was banned in several cities.

An adaptation in 20 scenes of Perrault's fairy tale, remarkable for its fantastical sets and special effects. The film showcases Méliès's genius for transposing literary enchantment into moving images.

Méliès's absolute masterpiece and the first science-fiction film in history, inspired by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Its 14 minutes of fantastical voyage and the iconic image of the Moon with a rocket in its eye make it a monument of world culture.

An ambitious follow-up to A Trip to the Moon, running 24 minutes. The film multiplies futuristic modes of transport (train, automobile, balloon, submarine) in a wildly inventive adventure story.

A burlesque anticipation of a railway tunnel linking France and England. Méliès masterfully employs his trick techniques to depict a technical feat that was still purely imaginary.

One of Méliès's last major films, depicting an expedition to the North Pole featuring a monumental snow giant. The film marks the swan song of an artist whose style was beginning to be overtaken by modern narrative cinema.

It was upon seeing the Lumière brothers' Cinematograph that I had the idea of transforming this machine for reproducing life into an instrument of fantasy and imagination. I wanted to make people dream, not merely to show.

The cinematograph is essentially an optical device whose purpose is to reproduce the movement of people or objects by projecting their successive images onto a screen. But it can equally become an instrument of fantastic composition.

The secret of my 'tricks' lies less in the mechanics than in the rigour of the scenic preparation. Each illusion must be choreographed like a ballet, with every actor knowing their mark to the exact second.

I have made more than five hundred films and I regret nothing, except for not having known how to defend my rights against those who plundered me. Art is not enough — one must also know how to fight in business.

Located on the Boulevard des Italiens, this magic theatre was purchased by Méliès in 1888. There he developed his art of illusionism and presented his first films starting in 1896.

The first glass film studio built in France (1897), entirely designed by Méliès. This giant greenhouse measuring 17 x 7 metres allowed him to film using natural light and to install his trick machinery.

It was in the basement of this establishment that Méliès attended, on 28 December 1895, the first paid screening by the Lumière brothers — the founding event that changed the course of his life.

Ruined and forgotten, Méliès ran a toy and confectionery stall at this station for many years. It was there that he was rediscovered by film enthusiasts in 1929, offering a melancholic epilogue to his extraordinary life.

Méliès spent the last years of his life in this residence for cinema artists and technicians, supported by the solidarity of the industry he had helped to found.

Méliès built his own camera inspired by British inventor Paul's Theatrograph. This improvised and refined instrument became the central tool of all his creations and visual experiments.

Méliès painted giant backdrops himself depicting fantastical landscapes. These forced-perspective sets, inherited from theatrical tradition, gave his films their characteristic fairytale atmosphere.

Before cinema, Méliès used the magic lantern for his shows at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. This ancestor of the projector taught him the principles of image projection and visual storytelling.

Inherited from magic theatre, trap doors hidden in the studio floor allowed Méliès to make actors appear or disappear instantly, creating illusions impossible to explain.

Méliès often acted in his own films, wearing extravagant costumes as a magician, mad scientist, or alien. He developed specific cinematic makeup techniques, distinct from stage makeup.

Silver nitrate film was the medium for all his movies. Highly flammable and fragile, it was this film that Méliès was forced to burn during his financial ruin, irreversibly destroying a large part of his body of work.

Méliès designed rail and counterweight systems to move the camera or sets in a precise and repeatable manner. These handcrafted devices were the technical secret behind his most spectacular visual effects.