The Arte channel provides a free documentary entitled “Le Mystère Méliès”, devoted to the career of the filmmaker, the restoration of his films, and his estrangement with his brother.
In the first cinema either, the industry was complicated, and the director Georges Méliès came to the point of falling out with his brother Gaston.
Directed in 2020 by Serge Bromberg and Éric Lange, the documentary Le Mystère Méliès explores the life of pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès, who through his use of mechanics, magic and editing, created from 1896 to 1913 the most impressive of his time. A film to discover here.
We discover in particular that Gaston Méliès lived in New York and had settled there to manage the branch of Méliès productions intended to distribute the works of Georges on American territory and protect them from counterfeits.
Business is going well, until Thomas Edison files the patent for the perforated 35 mm film and only requires that, in order to be sold on site from now on, Méliès’ films be shot on site and no longer imported from France.
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Georges Méliès on the left, Gaston on the right
Gaston then founded “G. Méliès”, his American production company, to shoot films of different genres on site (westerns, comedies). Gaston even tries the Hollywood adventure, in vain and loses money.
He therefore sold his half of the G. Méliès to the Vitagraph company, which then held the distribution rights for the films of Georges Méliès, and left for a trip to the Orient. He will shoot many films there that go unnoticed, and will remain forever at odds with Georges for having made him lose the negatives of his films, recovered by Vitagraph.
This story in detail and many others can be found in Le Mystère Méliès.