georges melies is one of the greatest movie directors that ever lived
coming from the magic biz he started making films in 1895 using a self constructed camera and projector
between 1895 and 1912 he made over 500 (!) great films of lengths between 2 and 20 minutes
he was a creative man of outstanding originality setting the basics of most modern film special effects (stop motion, dissolve, fading, masking etc.)
melies painted all his stage settings himself and was also main actor in most of his works
being more of an artist than a businessman he went bancrupt around the beginning of WW I
the fact that he was an artist and not just out for money makes him special and outstanding from the crowd of film pioneers
the sad truth is that when going bancrupt he destroyed all the original negatives of his films
fearing they might fall into the wrong hands
today over 200 films of the 514 films he made have been recovered (from prints that still existed)

this is just a short resumee about a man who can't be described in so few words
check out his films wherever you can (they are not shown very often!)
and you will understand, because they speak for themselves

if you love MELIES check this out:

a great DVD collection of 173 (yes you read correctly: 173!) films by GEORGES MELIES published by Eric Lange of Lobster Films, Paris.
there is only a US version in NTSC out so far, but the European version will follow in 2009!
the DVD is availabe at Flicker Alley

the official homepage of "les amis de georges melies" was accessible under www.georgesmelies.org some time ago
it is not online anymore, but maybe it will be back sometime...

click here for a small melies gallery

I have some films by melies for sale on 8mm film format:
click here for my films sales list