''Christ Walking on the Water'' (french: Le Christ marchant sur les flots) is an 1899 French silent trick film directed by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

Production

In the summer of 1899, Georges Méliès and his family took a vacation on the coast of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. During the vacation, Méliès made three short

actuality film The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things. Unlike the documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coh ...

s: '' Bird's-Eye View of St. Helier (Jersey)'', '' Steamer Entering the Harbor of Jersey'', and '' Passengers Landing at Harbor of Granville''. He also filmed the open sea, to use as a backdrop for multiple exposure effects for two fiction films: '' Neptune and Amphitrite'' and ''Christ Walking on the Water''. ''Christ Walking on the Water'' was based on the story told in Mark 6:45-52. The film was Méliès's second film based on religious themes; the first was '' The Temptation of Saint Anthony'', made the previous year.

Themes

The film depicted Christ in a simple storytelling fashion, emphasizing his magician-like qualities and the dramatic effect of the superhuman miracle. Méliès was not the only early filmmaker to favor this uncomplicated

Christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...

; the religious films of the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: *Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, a ...

use a similarly straightforward approach.

Release and reception

The film was released by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

and is numbered 204 in its catalogues, where it was advertised with the parenthetical subtitle ''exécuté sur mer véritable''. It may have influenced

Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a Innovator, 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 inter ...

's 1907 film '' La Vie et Passion de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ'', which features a similar scene of Christ walking on water. ''Christ Walking on the Water'' is currently 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 ...

References

External links

* Films directed by Georges Méliès Lost French films Films about Jesus French silent short films 1899 films French black-and-white films 1890s lost films 1899 short films 1890s French films Trick films {{1890s-France-film-stub