As is the case with many art forms, the exact origin of Cinema is tainted with controversy. While numerous innovators played important roles in the dawn of the medium, the Lumière brothers (Louis and Auguste) of France are most directly accredited with creating the first “films”. Credited with inventing the Cinématographe, a device that could record, print, and project film, in 1895, the Lumière brothers were at the forefront of filmmaking as a technical innovation. Film's transformation from technical achievement into valid art form, however, came at the hands of a different type of French innovator, Georges Méliès (1861-1938). Cinema, in fact, can literally be divided into two categories; pre and post-Georges Méliès. More so than any other filmmaker in the history of the medium, the roots of narrative filmmaking can be traced directly to Georges Méliès. His infusion of magic and fantasy into fledgling medium paved the way for the now-limitless possibilities of Cinema.
[...] When Georges Méliès' fantasy films caught on with the movie going public—which was still relatively small at the time—he began to obtain a measure of success. He created dozens upon dozens of films a year, and, in 1897, created France's first film studio. While Méliès was at the forefront of film production in France, it goes without saying that Méliès' films were mainly well-received by audiences for their illusionary properties. While the visual tricks in Méliès films are certainly what stand out at first, it is vital to understand that at the heart of his work was a focus on fantastic narratives; he was truly the cinema's first true fantasist. [...]
[...] Georges Melies: Movie Magic As is the case with many art forms, the exact origin of Cinema is tainted with controversy. While numerous innovators played important roles in the dawn of the medium, the Lumière brothers (Louis and Auguste) of France are most directly accredited with creating the first Credited with inventing the Cinématographe, a device that could record, print, and project film, in 1895, the Lumière brothers were at the forefront of filmmaking as a technical innovation. Film's transformation from technical achievement into valid art form, however, came at the hands of a different type of French innovator, Georges Méliès (1861-1938). [...]
[...] These magical illusions were, in a sense, a method of punctuating Méliès' fascinating storylines. That said, the visual tricks Méliès' created deserve a massive amount of admiration. As Williams points out, it was he who created “virtually all of the basic optical effects of the cinema: substitution editing (by which he could simulate sudden appearances, disappearances, an d sudden transformations, superimposition through multiple exposures, matting several images together into different parts of a single frame, dissolves, and so (Williams 36). [...]
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