Special thanks to Méliès experts at The Cinémathèque Française for their partnership on this project. Below, Laurent Mannoni, Director of Heritage at The Cinémathèque Française, shares more about Méliès and his impact on the world of cinema:

Over a hundred years later, we can thank the pioneering mind of Georges Méliès for much of the cinematographic wonder and special effects we see today. The title of one of his films, L'Homme-Orchestre (The One-Man Band, 1900), perfectly captures all that he was: a cartoonist, painter, caricaturist, magician, director of Robert-Houdin theater, set designer, comedian, writer, actor, technician, fantasy enthusiast, visionary of more than 500 films, and owner of the first glazed studio designed for the cinema. He was involved in ALL aspects of production for his works, from drawing set concepts to directing actors.

Méliès’ contribution to the seventh art was revolutionary. In a time when cinematography was nascent and almost exclusively documentary-style, Melies single handedly opened the doors of the dream, the magic, and the fiction. He accomplished this fundamental act by uniting the universes of Robert-Houdin with the chronophotography and cinematography of Marey and the Lumière brothers. The entire body of Méliès' work shines with dynamic fantasy, boundless imagination, and an irresistible jubilation. The worlds he created were explosive and a unique mixture of phantasmagoria, devilry, trompe-l'oeil, illusions, flames, fumes, and vapors.

Méliès often drew inspiration from current events. For example, his film A la Conquête du Pôle (The Conquest of the Pole, 1912) gives a comical and magical interpretation of the then recent explorations of Amundsen and his unfortunate competitors. He even built a "Snow Giant" inside his glazed Montreuil studio for the film, whose head alone measured two meters (over 6.5 feet) tall!

But Méliès also proved himself to be a visionary of what was to come. His film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902) is a burlesque and wonderful prediction of the landing of man on the moon, which would take place 67 years later. Similarly, Le Tunnel sous la Manche ou le Cauchemar franco-anglais (Tunneling the English Channel, 1907) predicted the Channel Tunnel well before it was drilled. He also imagined and built numerous scientific novelties for his time: he constructed his own solar eclipse using stage machinery in Éclipse du soleil en pleine lune (The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon, 1907), he mocked trendy medicine in Hydrothérapie fantastique (The Doctor’s Secret, 1909), he staged an electric factory in A la Conquête du Pôle (The Conquest of the Pole, 1912), and he imagined modern television in Photographie électrique à distance (Electrical Photographer [Long Distance Wireless Photography], 1908) many years in advance.

An amazingly agile actor and remarkable mime, Méliès also starred in almost all of his films. He sometimes even multiplies on stage, as in L'Homme-Orchestre (The One-Man Band, 1900), when seven Méliès appear in the same frame! Thanks to an optical trick, he even inflates his head until it explodes in L’Homme à la tête de caoutchouc (The Man with the Rubber Head, 1902).

Both of the examples above bring us to another major contribution of his pioneering mind: special effects. The magic of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg today could not have been possible without Méliès’ development of techniques across theatrical machinery, pyrotechnics, optical effects, horizontal and vertical dropouts, camera stops, crossfades, overprints, conjuring, editing effects, and color effects on film.

Méliès was fascinated by new technologies and was constantly on the lookout for new inventions. I imagine he would have been delighted to live in our era, which is so rich with immersive cinema, digital effects, and spectacular images on screen. I have no doubt he would have been flattered to find himself in the limelight via today’s very first Virtual Reality / 360° video Google Doodle, propelled around the world thanks to a new medium with boundless magical powers.

Explore original Georges Méliès memorabilia and discover the story behind the invention of the first cinema studio and special effects by visiting our new Google Arts & Culture exhibit, created in collaboration with The Cinémathèque Française in Paris, France.