These are the last books from that private collector sale.
Posts Tagged ‘Georges Méliès’
Library Addition: Two Books, One Signed
Friday, December 29th, 2023Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend
Thursday, December 17th, 2015Via Dwight comes word of this year’s additions to the National Film Registry. In addition to a bunch of “Hey, that wasn’t in there already?” selections The Shawshank Redemption, Ghostbusters, etc.), there is the usual list of obscure early films, one of which is “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend,” based on the Winsor McCay comic of the same name.
Naturally it’s on YouTube:
It features the sort of in-camera special effects Georges Méliès did better (and quicker). Welsh Rarebit, by the way, is a sort of cheese-on-toast dish (though given how quickly our fiend is quaffing potent potables, I don’t think the rarebit had that much to do with his dreams…).
Also included in this year’s selections: “Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze” from 1894, the earliest copyrighted motion picture footage in America, and which I now present to you in its entirety:
George Méliès: A Second Helping
Thursday, August 30th, 2012I’m moderating a panel on George Melies today, so here’s a second helping of his films (to go along with the first set I put up):
Another hand-tinted film, this one featuring a starfish that turns into a very octopoid spider:
Does your hotel room have a black devil problem?
Some low comedy:
Disembodied tricks:
Living playing cards:
Hugo and Georges Méliès
Monday, November 28th, 2011Howard Waldrop and I reviewed Hugo over at Locus Online, which we liked an awful lot.
The film involves (slight spoiler) the work of French film pioneer Georges Méliès, who produced, directed, wrote, and starred in over 500 silent short films, many of which no longer exists. But several of the ones that do are up on YouTube, and I thought I would gather them here. Méliès, a former stage magician, was the first to create a number of optical effects.
His most famous film, A Trip to the Moon, with the classic image of the shell embedded in the man-in-the-moon’s eye.
Interestingly, this was not his first film featuring the moon, as shown by The Astronomer’s Dream:
Another interplanetary voyage, this time by train, to the sun (in hand-tinted color, no less):
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
The Haunted Castle:
Mélies himself is front and center as each of The Four Troublesome Heads:
Likewise as the Man With the Rubber Head: