Dear Georges Melies

The first time I encountered Georges Melies was when I was 12 years old. Back then books were my world and I was lucky enough to have a cousin who gave me her old books. I couldn't be any happier, even though being a bookworm meant always being in solitude away from friends. I didn't care. All I knew back then was that books were very expensive and I was getting them for free!

Well one time, good ol' cousin sent my sisters and I a box of books. A hefty title caught my eye, and I remember immediately grabbing it. It was a graphic novel called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick. Now, at that time of my childhood, I've already filled my head with so many fantasies and fiction that nothing really became memorable to me. I hardly remember being enchanted by any book with the exemption of Hugo Cabret.

The book illustrated George Melies as a magician of film. I was never consciously fascinated with films, but somehow the book ignited a fire in me. I understood the early days of filmmaking and how difficult it was for artists such as Georges Melies to produce movies. It fascinates me to this day how he revolutionized storytelling. After reading the novel, I wanted to learn more about Georges Melies. I was even more in love when I discovered that he was not fictitious and that he made great movies. I watched a lot of his movies over and over and over again, especially "La Voyage Dans La Lune" (A Trip To The Moon).

And all of that started because of a picture novel.

My sisters and I eventually lost the book. I never found it and I am too cheap to buy a new copy (it's still quite expensive).

And so I started appreciating movies a lot more, and the people behind the camera. George Melies became my idol and inspiration. And although modern filmmakers supersede him in terms of eloquent film language, to me, Georges Melies is the best because he gave life to the world of filmmaking.

Georges Melies was first a shoemaker and magician before he became a filmmaker. And like myself, he just stumbled upon film. Invited to a private demonstration of the Lumiere brothers' cinematographe, Melies attended and was captivated by the Lumiere brothers' invention. He offered to buy the machine, but they rejected him. Little do they know, George himself is a talented mechanic, inventing automatons and toys.

He sourced everywhere for similar machinery such as a picture-projector (called the Animatograph), and with what he managed to get, he made his own film camera. He couldn't make film strips, but luckily they were sold. However, he had to learn how to develop the film on his own.

At that time, the invention of the cinematographe sparked a craze of inventors. They all tried to outdo one another, stealing and cheating designs (especially the evil Thomas Edison, but he's a whole new story to tell.)

Georges had his own world as soon as he figured out how to use his camera. He started his grand production, Star Film Company. And with the development and availability of cameras, Georges could not be stopped in making films. He made over 500 films. Because of his background in magic tricks, he applied them in his films. And wouldn't you know it, they enchanted a very impressionable group of movie-goers.

His movies were so different from his competition because he embraced the spectacle of theater and trickery of editing. Which is why some people regard him as the father of special effects. Not only that, he is one of the first filmmakers to apply narrative to their films.

We are so lucky today that his entire filmmaking life was documented by many great film historians. I urge you to read more on him because he had such a colorful life in pictures. I mean that figuratively and literally because he also painted or tinted his film strips to achieve his colored pictures. His legacy lives on, but what didn't survive along with his memory are his beloved films.

Because of a strife with Pathe as well as the destruction of WWI, Georges' career as a filmmaker stopped. His theater house, Robert-Houdin, was occupied by the military and they confiscated his films, burning all of it to extract silver and celluloid that were used for making shoe heels. Pathe decided to take over Star Film Company and this angered Georges so much that he burned all of his remaining film negatives. Majority of his pictures do not exist anymore.

In the graphic novel, Georges was portrayed as a bitter old toy vendor. Rightfully so, because his life's work had been destroyed by jealous enemies. I know that the book had creative liberty depicting the life of Georges' post-film career and not all of what was written is factual, but to this day that is how I choose to believe his life carried on- that now the remainder of his surviving films will live on as long as there are people who will watch and admire his pictures.

And so I pay respects to a magician long dead, but lives in me the decades of his masterpiece, works of vision and odd tales, that I like to say is now my example and life mission. His films call a challenge to us film lovers: make movies.

Thank you, Georges for fueling a new purpose for me.