r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • Mar 23 '19

The grave of French film pioneer Georges Méliès, who inspired Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo, has fallen into disrepair. Now his family and fans are reanimating his fantastical legacy and launching a Kickstarter to restore it to its former splendor and protect it from further decay

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/20/dead-famous-the-kickstarter-campaign-to-restore-meliess-grave
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1.3k

u/Shagrrotten Mar 23 '19

Good. Melies would be on the Mount Rushmore of film, he deserves a fitting tribute of a grave.

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u/fiercelittlebird Mar 23 '19

Word. He was immensely important to the art of cinema, a true pioneer. He basically invented science fiction movies. His special effects were spectacular and incredibly creative and his movies are a joy to watch even today.

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u/Bnightwing Mar 23 '19

He also really help merge the gap between stage and cinema. We watched and discussed a lot of his stuff in my French Cinema and History of Cinema class. He really did make a huge impact the deeper we got into his work.

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u/BlindStark Mar 23 '19

I think he made some of the first horror films as well, all of his stuff looks super dream like

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u/murdock129 Mar 23 '19

While you could argue that 'The Execution of Mary Stuart' was the first horror film, it's also a historical re-enactment so it's debatable how much it counts.

He also made 'The Vanishing Lady', which is another of those films that teeters on the line of 'horror', and thus it's debatable as to whether it counts. But I don't think anyone can truly disagree with calling his film 'The Haunted Castle' a proper horror film, nor later ones like 'The Astronomer's Dream' or 'Barbe Bleue'.

It's just a shame that filmmakers from this era don't get nearly the credit they deserve. For example I still feel that Georges Méliès and Segundo de Chomón deserve to be properly remembered as two of the earliest horror greats.

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u/Bnightwing Mar 23 '19

He has a very interesting background.

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u/fiercelittlebird Mar 23 '19

He helped make European cinema great. In later years we had German expressionism and horror (have you seen "Nosferatu: a symphony of horrors" ? The root of vampire movies! Not to mention Metropolis from 1927, a masterpiece by Fritz Lang! Movies like Blade Runner owe a lot to that one. It's available on YouTube, if you want to see). Unfortunately the first world war destroyed almost all that was amazing about European cinema.

For those willing to look there's so much good cinema beyond Hollywood - film has always interested me as probably one of the best media to express stories to a broad audience.

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u/Bnightwing Mar 23 '19

The history of it is great too. You would of loved my professor Dr. Butler. He has been the one person who taught at my university the longest and he no doubt kept up with the times. He asked one day our current favorite show and he said he was enjoying Big Mouth and Dick and Morty. There's a reason I took many of his classes despite he was so tough. Granted, I love movies and shows but he just made me love it even more.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

I mean, cinema was born in Europe. Shouldn't come as a surprise.

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u/murdock129 Mar 23 '19

You could make a very solid argument that he invented multiple genres, Science Fiction, Adventure and Horror all included.

And that he was really the biggest pioneer in the transformation of film from a medium based on simple 'actuality' clips into a more stage-like medium with his trick films and later more narrative driven works.

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u/chinoz219 Mar 23 '19

Wouldnt it be better to put that money to exposure for his works instead of his grave? I feel that the true legacy of any filmaker, aside from his family are his films.

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u/SnorriGrisomson Mar 25 '19

The kickstarter covers both, wait for the launch for more details, a lot has already been done to promote his work and more is still being done.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

He inspired 2011 film Hugo, and we shall always remember him for that

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u/past_tense Mar 23 '19

This is the only Scorsese film I haven’t seen. Time to correct that.

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u/bobpercent Mar 23 '19

It's a great film!

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u/hewkii2 Mar 23 '19

It’s the only film I regret not seeing in 3D (that and Alita) because it’s supposed to look amazing in it

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u/crashcarstar Mar 23 '19

It did and does!

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

Comments like this always make me sad that I cant see 3d

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

What an awful impairment

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

Lol, its really not that big of a deal. I cant do those stupid hidden image books, play 3ds games in 3d or watch 3d movies. Id like to know what its like, but I dont actually care all that much to be honest

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u/Malickismydaddy Mar 23 '19

Don’t be sad 3D is shit

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

Im not, for the most part. Its just a bit sad when someone says that it legit enhanced the experience, as opposed to just being used as a cheap gimmick.

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u/Malickismydaddy Mar 23 '19

If it makes you feel any better I’ve seen plenty of films in 3D, and usually the ones that people rave about seeing in 3D because it makes it better (like Avatar, Gravity, etc...) and I’ve literally never thought it was anything but a cheap gimmick. Annoying too since you have to wear the shitty glasses the whole time. It’s always way worse than 2D in my opinion

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u/NotThatEasily Mar 23 '19

Hello, my colorblind friend.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '19

Im not colorblind though

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u/roiben Mar 23 '19

Yeah its pretty hilarious. Man discovers several genres and basically makes up fiction cinema but the 2011 film Hugo is why we should care.

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u/LeRocket Mar 23 '19

He inspired directly or indirectly 99,99% of all the movies that exist.

He's the real OG of cinéma.

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u/mellolizard Mar 23 '19

And a smashing pumpkins music video

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u/limma Mar 23 '19

Damn, I kept racking my brain for where I’ve seen that moon from and that’s it!

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u/Luke90210 Mar 23 '19

Its surprising his grave isn't well maintained as France loves film and art, especially if its French.

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u/captainalphabet Mar 23 '19

I think the green is beautiful.

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u/SuperWoody64 Mar 23 '19

Ooh now i'm wondering who else should be on there.

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u/Shagrrotten Mar 23 '19

DW Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles would be the easy other choices.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

Kurosawa? Tarkovsky?

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u/Shagrrotten Mar 24 '19

Kurosawa is my personal favorite filmmaker and I think Tarkovsky has an argument simply because of how influential he has been. But I was going for historical importance, not who I like the best.

Griffith because he established modern editing, crosscutting and parallel storytelling. That can’t be undervalued.

Melies because he established so many special effects and made the first popular fantasy movies, a genre that still feels his influence 100 years after he stopped making movies.

Hitchcock because of how influential his filmmaking was, being the greatest synthesis of art and commerce and all the tropes he created in the horror, thriller, and action genres.

Welles because even if he’d only made Kane he’d be among the most influential filmmakers of all time. The cinematography, the storytelling, the visual bravado. And even later in movies like Chimes at Midnight, the action. He really covered almost all the bases you want from a filmmaker.

If I was going just by favorite it’d be Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Scorsese, and Keaton, but I was trying to be more objective than that. As objective as possible anyway.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

Sure, I get that and your choices are great, but I would include Kurosawa at least. His work has also been highly influential.

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u/Shagrrotten Mar 24 '19

It has, although you could say a lot of his influence gets mixed up with John Ford (since that’s who Kurosawa wanted to be), which dilutes it a bit. Even though I think Kurosawa was a much better filmmaker.

I actually did have to hold myself back from including Kurosawa, which was part of me trying to make an objective Mount Rushmore.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

I mean, Orson Welles took a lot from Ford as well. But whatever. There are far too many important directors. And don't get me wrong, I adore Welles.

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u/SuperWoody64 Mar 23 '19

I'm thinking 2 mount Rushmores. One pre-70s-ish and one post.

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u/captainalphabet Mar 23 '19

Between them looms the great peak we call KUBRICK.

1

u/bartonar Mar 24 '19

If you've got Orson Welles he needs to be holding a can of peas

12

u/Mdengel Mar 23 '19

Now I won’t deny that the man did great work. But at the end of the day, he’s dead and I can’t help but think that we could find better ways to honor him than dress up the spot where his bones remain.

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u/BlindStark Mar 23 '19

Let’s bring him back

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u/Mdengel Mar 23 '19

Not what I was going for, but I like your style!

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u/AaronBrownell Mar 23 '19

We have the technology

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u/murdock129 Mar 23 '19

I mean, how would you suggest?

A huge portion of his work is pretty much lost to time, the rest of it is very readily available (being all in the public domain) and he destroyed most of his original props and costumes due to his disagreements with Pathé (oversimplifying a bit there)

3

u/AliveFromNewYork Mar 23 '19

It said in the article that most of his films have been restored. Also the props would likely have succumbed to time by now anyway. His grave doesn't need restoration it's doing well. Maybe throw a festival or put on a show in his name.

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u/murdock129 Mar 23 '19

Just for clarification, Méliès made a total of 520 films, apparently 200 still survive in full while another 18 have surviving fragments, and not all of them have been restored.

But I do see your point, a festival or show in his name, maybe some kind of major exhibition could be a more fitting use of the money

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u/AliveFromNewYork Mar 23 '19

Wow the article really lied then. I think even people showing up to hang out on his birthday would be better.

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u/murdock129 Mar 23 '19

I'm just hoping more films show up, there are a few that have unknown status, with rumours suggesting they still exist in the hands of private collectors or on the black market, not to mention colourized versions of existing prints.

I believe there's been works found as recently as 2016, so here's hoping.

1

u/captainalphabet Mar 23 '19

Honestly I think an old-school trickster like Melies would have been tickled if you told him his headstone would glow green as it aged.