''Gugusse and the Automaton'' (french: Gugusse et l'Automate), also known as ''The Clown and the Automaton'', was an 1897 French short silent 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 ...

. The film featured a clown amazed and confused by the mechanical movements of an

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

. The film marked the first known cinematic appearance of a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

(a word that would not replace "automaton" until its use in

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel ''War with the Newts'' (1936) and play ''R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal Ro ...

's play ''

R.U.R. ''R.U.R.'' is a 1920 science-fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. "R.U.R." stands for (Rossum's Universal Robots, a phrase that has been used as a subtitle in English versions). The play had its world premiere on 2 January 1921 in H ...

''), and was one of the earliest films to feature themes of "scientific experimentation, creation and transformation." In their ''Things to Come: An Illustrated History of the Science Fiction Film'', Douglas Menville and R. Reginald judged ''Gugusse'' to be the most significant scientifically themed film of 1897, and suggested that "may be the first true

SF film SF may refer to: Locations * San Francisco, California, United States * Sidi Fredj, Algeria * South Florida, an urban region in the United States * Suomi Finland, ISO_3166-1_alpha-2#SF-Transitional, former vehicular country code for Finland ...

." ''Gugusse'' 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 111 in its catalogues. It 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

1897 films Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films French science fiction films 1890s science fiction films Robot films Lost French films 1890s lost films 1897 short films 1890s French films Films about clowns Silent science fiction films {{1890s-France-film-stub