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The Merry Frolics Of Satan
''The Merry Frolics of Satan'' (french: Les Quat'Cents Farces du diable, literally ''The Four Hundred Tricks of the Devil'') is a 1906 French silent film by Georges Méliès. The film is an updated comedic adaptation of the Faust legend, borrowing elements from two stage ''féerie'' spectaculars: ''Les Pilules du diable'' (1839), a classic stage fantasy with knockabout comedy, and ''Les Quatre Cents Coups du diable'' (1905), a satirical update of ''Les Pilules du diable'' to which Méliès had contributed two sequences, one of which he incorporated into the present film. In addition to directing and acting in it, Méliès supervised all aspects of the film's design and trick effect work, including extensive use of stage machinery, in his lavishly individual style, which was already unusual in the mass production-dominated French film industry. The film follows the adventures of an ambitious engineer who abandons his family and responsibilities when he barters with the Devil (play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Seaside Flirtation
''A Seaside Flirtation'' (french: Le Rastaquouère Rodriguez y Papaguanas) was a 1906 French silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. Plot On the beach, a young woman enters a bathing box to change from her bathing costume to her street clothes. A young dandy, attempting to flirt with the woman, stops at a seaside restaurant near the bathing box to write her an amorous note. The woman, seeing him writing, quickly changes places with her husband in a neighboring bathing box. The dandy, stooping down to slip his note under the door, is taken by surprise when the husband pours a pitcher of water on him. The astonished dandy knocks over the bathing box. It falls on some diners at the restaurant, who angrily shove the dandy inside the box, pile it in chairs and tables, lift it high in the air, and give the dandy a shake. The restaurant's chef finishes off the exhausted dandy's punishment by pouring a bag of flour over him. The young woman, having changed into her street clothes, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois
Auguste Anicet, later Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois (25 December 1806 – 12 January 1871) was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. The first play to bear his name is ''L'Ami et le mari, ou le Nouvel Amphitryon'', a vaudeville in one act. It was produced in 1825, when the author was still in his teens. Over the course of his career he was credited in the writing of nearly 200 plays, as many as ten a year. However the nature of theatrical collaboration at this time was such that the extent of his contribution to any given play is debatable. In fact it is known that he assisted Alexandre Dumas in the writing of several plays (''Térésa, Angèle, Le Mari de la Veuve, La Vénitienne''), sometimes without acknowledgement. He is the subject of an anecdote in Dumas's "''Comment je devins auteur dramatique''" ("How I became a Dramatist"), published in 1833 in ''Revue des Deux Mondes''. Other writers with whom he worked were Philippe Dumanoir, Julien de Mallian, Victor Ducange, Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Eruption Of Mount Pelee
''Éruption volcanique à la Martinique'', released in the United States as ''The Eruption of Mount Pelee'' and in Britain as ''The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelée and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique'', is a 1902 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. The film is a short reconstruction, using miniature models, of a recent historical event: the eruption on 8 May 1902 of Mount Pelée, which destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique. Summary Mount Pelée looms over the town of Saint-Pierre. Fire and smoke rises from the crater; then lava begins pouring down the sides of the mountain. The village is soon engulfed in smoke and flames. Production The film is one of the most frequently cited examples of Méliès's "reconstructed newsreels," staged re-enactments of current events. ''The Eruption of Mount Pelee'' was his third-to-last work in the genre. It was followed by two others also made in 1902: '' The Catastrophe of the Balloon "Le Pax"'' and the mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrotechnics
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolition. This trade relies upon self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions to make heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound. The name comes from the Greek words ''pyr'' ("fire") and ''tekhnikos'' ("made by art"). People responsible for the safe storage, handling, and functioning of pyrotechnic devices are known as pyrotechnicians. Proximate pyrotechnics Explosions, flashes, smoke, flames, fireworks and other pyrotechnic-driven effects used in the entertainment industry are referred to as proximate pyrotechnics. Proximate refers to the pyrotechnic device's location relative to an audience. In the majority of jurisdictions, special training and licensing must be obtained from local authorities to legally prepare and use proximate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multiple Exposure
In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other. Overview Ordinarily, cameras have a sensitivity to light that is a function of time. For example, a one-second exposure is an exposure in which the camera image is equally responsive to light over the exposure time of one second. The criterion for determining that something is a double exposure is that the sensitivity goes up and then back down. The simplest example of a multiple exposure is a double exposure without flash, i.e. two partial exposures are made and then combined into one complete exposure. Some single exposures, such as "flash and blur" use a combination of electronic flash and ambient exposure. This effect can be approximated by a Dirac delta measure (flash) and a constant finite rectangular window, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Substitution Splice
The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining the same framing and other aspects of the scene in both shots. The effect is usually polished by careful editing to establish a seamless cut and optimal moment of change. It has also been referred to as stop motion substitution or stop-action. The pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès claimed to have accidentally developed the stop trick, as he wrote in ''Les Vues Cinématographiques'' in 1907 (translated from French): According to the film scholar Jacques Deslandes, it is more likely that Méliès discovered the trick by carefully examining a print of the Edison Manufacturing Company's 1895 film ''The Execution of Mary Stuart'', in which a primitive version of the trick appears. In any case, the substitution splice was both the fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montreuil-sous-Bois
Montreuil (), sometimes unofficially referred to as Montreuil-sous-Bois (), is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis. With a population of 109,914 as of 2018, Montreuil is the fourth most populous suburb of Paris after Boulogne-Billancourt, Saint-Denis and Argenteuil. It is located north of Paris's Bois de Vincennes (in the 12th arrondissement), on the border with Val-de-Marne. Name The name Montreuil was recorded for the first time in a royal edict of 722 as ''Monasteriolum'', meaning "little monastery" in Medieval Latin. The settlement of Montreuil started as a group of houses built around a small monastery. History Under the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI the "Peach Walls" which provided the royal court with the fruits were located in Montreuil. It was also later home to the Lumière brothers and George Méliès whose workshops were located in lower Montreuil. On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cook In Trouble
''Sorcellerie culinaire (scène clownesque)'', released in the US as ''The Cook in Trouble'' and in the UK as ''Cookery Bewitched'', is a 1904 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 585–588 in its catalogues. Production Méliès plays the cook in the film. Special effects used include pyrotechnics and substitution splices. The action of the film is a variation on the "trapdoor chase", a type of spectacular chase sequence particularly associated with the Lupino family of performers, including Lupino Lane. In Méliès's version, the trapdoors are designed as openings within the kitchen set: a window, an oven door, a pot, a drawer, and so on. Describing the film for British exhibitors, Charles Urban's film catalogue called the result "acrobatic". Reception and survival With its fast-paced antics, designed to build up a hectic visual rhythm rather than to advance a narrative, ''The Cook in Trouble'' has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Damnation Of Faust (film)
''Faust aux enfers'', released in the United States as ''The Damnation of Faust'' and in Britain as ''The Condemnation of Faust'', is a 1903 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Production Méliès had previously filmed two other adaptations of the Faust legend: '' Faust and Marguerite'' (1897) and '' Damnation of Faust'' (1898). The 1903 ''Damnation of Faust'' was his third version. In 1904, he would make a fourth and last straightforward adaptation, '' Faust and Marguerite'', but his later films '' The Merry Frolics of Satan'' (1905) and '' The Knight of the Snows'' (1912) are also inspired by the legend. According to Méliès's American catalogue, the direct inspiration for the 1903 version was Hector Berlioz's musical work ''La damnation de Faust''. Méliès plays Mephistopheles in the film. The dancing masked demons have the same costumes as those in '' The Infernal Cake Walk'', a Méliès film made earlier in 1903. The elaborate painted scenery for the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Macaire And Bertrand
''Robert Macaire and Bertrand'' (french: Robert Macaire et Bertrand, les rois de cambrioleurs) is a 1906 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Plot Some details from the following synopsis are taken from the plot description in Méliès's 1905 American catalogue. Two thieves, Robert Macaire and his friend Bertrand, are eating a cheap meal at a small inn. Finding the inn's buffet table momentarily unattended, they steal everything on the table, including the tablecloth, and make a getaway. When the waitress returns, she realizes what the thieves have done and calls for help. Four police officers start off after Macaire and Bertrand. As the chase begins, the criminals break into the International Bank and steal some bags of gold. They escape through a transom and finally arrive in a theatre's costume storage room, where they disguise themselves as tourists. The thieves, hiding their everyday clothes, attempt to catch a train in their new disguises, and just manage to ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxicab
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice. This differs from public transport where the pick-up and drop-off locations are decided by the service provider, not by the customers, although demand responsive transport and share taxis provide a hybrid bus/taxi mode. There are four distinct forms of taxicab, which can be identified by slightly differing terms in different countries: * Hackney carriages, also known as public hire, hailed or street taxis, licensed for hailing throughout communities * Private hire vehicles, also known as minicabs or private hire taxis, licensed for pre-booking only * Taxibuses, also come in many variations throughout the developing countries as jitneys or jeepney, operating on pre-set routes typified by multiple stops and multiple independent passenger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Adventurous Automobile Trip
''An Adventurous Automobile Trip'' (french: Le Raid Paris–Monte Carlo en automobile or ''Le Raid Paris–Monte Carlo en deux heures'') is a 1905 French short film, short silent film, silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès. The film, a spoof of the devil-may-care motoring exploits of King Leopold II of Belgium, features the King engaging in a manic, implausibly fast automobile ride from Paris to Monte Carlo. The singer-comedian Harry Fragson stars as the King, supported by a large cast of stage performers from the Folies Bergère cabaret and other venues, with two cameo appearances from Méliès himself. Méliès, working in collaboration with the stage director Victor de Cottens, designed ''An Adventurous Automobile Trip'' as an innovative Folies Bergère act combining stage performance and film, with a live prologue and epilogue used to frame the filmed sequence. After this version premiered on 31 December 1904, Méliès adapted the film to be a standalone release fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
