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This excellent documentary encompasses the life and films of Georges Méliès. I have seen many halfhearted attempts at documenting filmmakers' lives on film, so this was a pleasant surprise. Méliès took his enthusiasm and magic from his Robert Houdin Theatre and projected it onto the silver screen--films full of trick-shots and wacky humour. Director Jacques Meny's documentary displays all the zest of a Méliès short film.Méliès was more consistent and consistently entertaining than his contemporary filmmakers; he was the earliest director that applies to the basics of auteur theory. Nevertheless, that consistency would be his downfall, as others surpassed his tableau vivant style and concentrated more on narrative construction and better quality productions, or at least more adroit business tactics and larger outpouring of product. At once, Méliès was atop the cinéma world, yet would end up burning his films. He compulsively wanted to please and became one of the most important persons in film history.Anyhow, Meny looks at Méliès from various angles: discussing his life, his film-making, his films and the world that influence him. Meny uses various techniques to tell the story; the obvious means are used: film clips, photographs and artwork, interviews, reenactments and first-person narration. The most impressive are the use of a miniature reconstruction of Méliès's studio and demonstrations of how he did the trick-shots and other special effects. Yet, they made the mistake of placing the English voiceovers on top of the muffled original French in the translated version. Either use subtitles or rid the original language completely for the voiceovers.The documentary is not strictly chronological. There is no scene-by-scene dissection of 'A Trip to the Moon' here, or just boring talking heads; the focus is on the enthusiasm, the magic, of Méliès via the enthusiasm of his admirers. With any other early filmmaker--the Lumiére brothers, Edwin S. Porter, D.W. Griffith--such emotional appeals would be sappy. Méliès, however, was so vivacious that here they serve harmony and poignancy.
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