Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Georges Méliès First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)

Contents: Le Cauchemar [A Nightmare] (1896), Escamotage d’une dame chez Robert-Houdin [The Vanishing Lady] (1896), Une nuit terrible [A Terrible Night] (1896), Une partie de cartes [A Card Party] (1896), Après le bal — Le tub [After the Ball] (1897), L’Auberge ensortelée [The Bewitched Inn] (1897), Le Château hanté [The Haunted Castle] (1897), Entre Calais et Douvres [Between Calais and Dover] (1897), La Prise de Tournavos [The Surrender of Tournavos] (1897), Guillaume Tell et le clown [William Tell and the Clown] (1898), Un homme de tête [The Four Troublesome Heads] (1898), Illusions fantasmagoriques [The Famous Box Trick] (1898), La Lune à un mètre [The Astronomer’s Dream] (1898), Le Magicien [The Magician] (1898), Panorama pris d’un train en marche [Panorama from Top of a Moving Train] (1898), La Tentation de Saint Antoine [The Temptation of St. Anthony] (1898), Visite sous-marine du Maine [Divers at Work on the Wreck of the Maine] (1898), L’Affaire Dreyfus [The Dreyfus Affair] (1899), Cendrillon [Cinderella] (1899), Le Chevalier mystère [The Mysterious Knight] (1899), La danse du feu [The Pillar of Fire] (1899), Le Diable au couvent [The Devil in a Convent] (1899), L’Illusioniste fin de siècle [The Conjurer] (1899), Le Portrait mystérieux [The Mysterious Portrait] (1899), Le Déshabillage impossible [Going to Bed Under Difficulties] (1900), L’homme orchestre [The One-Man Band] (1900), L’Illusionniste double et la tête vivante [The Triple Conjurer and the Living Head] (1900), Les Infortunes d’un explorateur ou les momies récalcitrantes [The Misfortunes of an Explorer] (1900), Jeanne d’Arc [Joan of Arc] (1900), Le livre magique [The Magic Book] (1900), Nouvelles luttes extravagantes [Fat and Lean Wrestling Match] (1900), Le repas fantastique [A Fantastic Meal] (1900), Rêve de Noël [The Christmas Dream] (1900), Le rêve du Radjah ou la forêt enchantée [The Rajah’s Dream] (1900), Le réveil d’un monsieur pressé [How He Missed the Train] (1900), Le savant et le chimpanzé [The Doctor and the Monkey] (1900), Le sorcier, le prince et le bon génie [The Wizard, the Prince and the Good Fairy] (1900), Spiritisme abracadabrant [Up-to-Date Spiritualism] (1900), Tom Whisky ou l’illusionniste toqué [Addition and Subtraction] (1900), Le tonneau des Danaïdes [Eight Girls in a Barrel] (1900), La vengeance du gâte-sauce [The Cook’s Revenge] (1900), L’Antre des espirits [The Magician’s Cavern] (1901), Barbe-bleue [Bluebeard] (1901), Le Brahmane et le papillon [The Brahmin and the Butterfly] (1901), Le Chapeau à surprise [The Hat with Many Surprises] (1901), Chez la sorcière [The Bachelor’s Paradise] (1901), Le Diable géant ou le miracle de la madone [The Devil and the Statue] (1901), Dislocation mystérieuse [Extraordinary Illusions] (1901), Excelsior! [Excelsior! — Prince of Magicians] (1901), L’homme à la tête en caoutchouc [The Man with the Rubber Head] (1901), La maison tranquille [What is Home Without the Boarder] (1901), Nain et géant [The Dwarf and the Giant] (1901), Le Sacre d’Edouard VII [The Coronation of Edward VII] (1902), L’auberge du bon repos [The Inn Where No Man Rests] (1903), La Lanterne magique [The Magic Lantern] (1903), Le mélomane [The Melomaniac] (1903), Le portrait spirite [A Spiritualist Photographer] (1903), Le reve de l’horloger [The Clock Maker’s Dream] (1904) and other Méliès films.

Georges Méliès is best known for his inventive and visually-striking short films that helped to establish the new technology of motion pictures as a worldwide entertainment industry. The Méliès comedies and dramas of 1896 and 1897 far outstripped, in imagination and execution, the primitive product of American film producers from those early years.

The collection has been followed by a supplemental disc, Georges Méliès: Encore (1896-1911), containing 26 additional Méliès films.

— Carl Bennett

This massive DVD collection, produced by Eric Lange and David Shepard, of more than 170 films by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès also contains a documentary on Méliès by Georges Franju, featuring Méliès’ son and widow.

Many of the films that have previously appeared on disc have been remastered in high-definition yielding an excellent and definitive collection on DVD.

The films are accompanied by numerous musicians and in a variety of styles and instruments.

Also included is a 36-page booklet with essays by Norman McLaren and John Frazer (Méliès biographer and cataloguer).

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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

Other FRENCH FILMS of the silent era available on home video.