''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 Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée ( ; french: Montagne Pelée, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Montann Pèlé, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain") is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas departmen ...

, which destroyed the town of

Saint-Pierre, Martinique Saint-Pierre (, ; ; Martinican Creole: ) is a town and commune of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique, founded in 1635 by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre by a volcanic eruption in 1902, ...

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 most complex one of all, '' The Coronation of Edward VII''. Stylistically, the film is reminiscent of the dioramas popular in the 19th century, which offered simulated views of places and events that would otherwise be inaccessible to spectators. Méliès's table-top miniature models recreate the eruption in a "storybook illustration" style highly indebted to

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. Academic opinion is divided on the exact method Méliès used to create the eruption. The Méliès descendant and film scholar Jacques Malthête hypothesized that a type of

flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...

known as the Feu de Bengale was used (as Méliès did four years later to create an eruption of

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...

in '' The Merry Frolics of Satan''); film historians René Jeanne and Charles Ford nominated a flammable combination of cloth, colored water, cinders, and a kind of powdered chalk called Blanc d'Espagne; Méliès's granddaughter, Madeleine Malthête-Méliès, indicated that starch was poured down the model to simulate lava, and that pieces of paper and unseasoned wood were burned to create smoke; and the Méliès expert John Frazer suggested that the model was made of cardboard and paper and that "the eruption ascreated by a combination of flashing lights, powdered chalk, and cinders." According to the film historian Pierre Lephrohon, the poet

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of t ...

once asked Méliès himself how he made ''The Eruption of Mount Pelee''. Méliès said simply: "By photographing cinders and chalk." Apollinaire remarked to a friend who was with them: "Monsieur and I have the same occupation, we enchant ordinary materials."

Release and other versions

''The Eruption of Mount Pelee'' was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 397 in its catalogues. Two other filmmakers contemporary with Méliès,

Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the international ...

and

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

, produced their own miniature-model reconstructions of the Pelée eruption. Zecca's version, produced in May 1902 as ''Catastrophe de la Martinique'' (number 544 in the

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

catalogue), used four stagehands to create the eruption effect: one burning sulfur behind the model mountain, another pouring down smoke from a ladder off screen, a third on another ladder throwing down handfuls of sawdust to represent cinders, and a fourth agitating the miniature sea and raising the water level to suggest a tidal wave. The film historian

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

notes that Zecca's version aims for

academic realism Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie ...

in its style, creating an effect markedly different from Méliès's deliberately Romanticized portrayal. The

Edison Manufacturing Company The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 188 ...

version was released in three parts: ''Mt. Pelee Smoking Before Eruption (St. Pierre, Martinique)'', ''Mt. Pelee in Eruption and Destruction of St. Pierre (Martinique)'', and ''Burning of St. Pierre (Martinique).'' The Edison Company had sent the photographer J. Blair Smith to Martinique to film the aftermath of the accident; meanwhile, the filmmaker

Edwin S. Porter Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...

stayed at the Edison studio in

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 30,134, reflecting a decline of 2,734 (−8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in 2000. Orange was original ...

to recreate the eruption using a studio model. A dozen clips of Smith's real-life footage, and all three of Porter's films simulating different stages of the eruption, were sold by the Edison Company in July 1902; the catalogue encouraged exhibitors to combine the real and faked films to "make a complete show in themselves." According to the film historian Lewis Jacobs, the crew that created the Edison version found their own unique way to simulate the eruption: they exposed a barrel of beer to direct sunlight and waited for it to explode. ''The Eruption of Mount Pelee'' was presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

for many years; a film in the collection of the

Cinémathèque Française The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...

was sometimes misidentified as Méliès's film, but it was in fact Zecca's version. Méliès's film was finally recovered in 2007, when a copy was found and restored by the

Filmoteca de Catalunya The Filmoteca de Catalunya is a film archive located in Catalunya, Spain, aiming at the preservation of film and the dissemination of audiovisual and film culture. The head office and public rooms (cinemas, exhibition rooms, library) are located ...

References

External links

*
''The Eruption of Mount Pelee'' at SilentEra''The Eruption of Mount Pelee''
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eruption of Mount Pelee, The 1902 films 1900s documentary films Black-and-white documentary films French silent short films Documentary films about historical events Documentary films about disasters Films directed by Georges Méliès 1900s rediscovered films French black-and-white films French documentary films Rediscovered French films