page_title: List of actuality films by Georges Méliès
section_title: Films
hierarchical_section_title: List of actuality films by Georges Méliès / Films
caption_attribution_description: English: Ludovic Bassarab (1868-1933) - Threshing, signed at bottom left in yellow, oil on plywood, 35x25cm. Română: Ludovic Bassarab (1868-1933) - La treierat, semnat stânga jos cu galben, ulei pe placaj, 35x25cm.
context_page_description: Georges Méliès, a French filmmaker and magician, made a variety of short actuality films between 1896 and 1900. Méliès was established as a magician with his own theater-of-illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris, when he attended the celebrated first public demonstration of the Lumière Brothers' Kinetoscope in December 1895. Unable to purchase a camera from the Lumières, who insisted that the venture had no future, he bought a film projector and some films from the British film experimenter Robert W. Paul and began projecting them at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. Meanwhile, Méliès studied the principles on which Paul's projector ran, and in 1896 was able to modify the machine so that it could be used as a makeshift camera. At first, Méliès followed the custom of the time, and the example memorably set by the pioneering Lumières, by producing actuality films—brief "slice of life" incidents made by preparing naturalistic scenes for the camera or by filming events of the day.
context_section_description: The following guide to Méliès's actuality films lists the numbers assigned in the catalogues of Méliès's studio, the Star Film Company; the original French and English titles; the presumed filming date; and whether the film survives or is presumed lost. Unless otherwise referenced, this data comes from Jacques Malthête's 2008 filmography of the films of Georges Méliès. Wherever possible, brief summaries of the films are given; unless otherwise cited, these are extrapolated from the available French and English titles.
caption: A steam-powered threshing machine; Méliès showed one in film 65
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