The Méliès Mystery (2021 TV Movie)

Leonard Maltin: Narrator

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Narrator : In 1923, Georges Méliès, cinema's first magician, inventor of the first ever special effects, destroyed all his work in a fit of desperation. The original negatives of the 520 films he directed between 1896 and 1913, went up in flames. Were the dreams, the enchanting visions, the masterpieces really lost forever? Maybe not. One hundred years later, Méliès the magician is to perform a final magic trick and will reappear eternally youthful. But, this is another one of your tricks, isn't it Monsieur Méliès?

• Narrator : There's no escaping your destiny.

• Self - Subject : It was a simply a camera freeze that occurred while I was fixing the cars on Opéra square. Suddenly the camera stopped. By the time we fixed it, the cars placements had changed and I was surprised during the editing to suddenly see, instead of a Madeleine-Bastille omnibus, a hearse and the whole family that followed.

  Narrator : The first cinema special affect was born. Méliès would use it and abuse it, for years to come.

• Narrator : With, "The Dreyfus Affair," the first ever political film, Méliès revealed new possibilities for the brand new cinema industry. The Star Film Company had now taken on all genres: advertisements, dramas, comedies, even historical reenactments. But, the verdict of audiences was clear. They preferred extravaganzas. Trick films. Films with lavish and ingenious visual effects. In other words: the Méliès genre.

• Narrator : Could Méliès have been the first filmmaker to shoot a film in 3-D? As early as 1903? Who knows?

• Narrator : In the end, his final screen appearance, was in a simple cigarette advertisement. One last film, one last trick, and Méliès died, on a gloomy day, of January 1938.