The Melomaniac
Le Mélomane 1903
Georges Méliès made 29 films in total in 1903. This is one of the most famous 'trick' films ever. The amount of work and precision invested into this 50-metre filmstrip is stupendous.

St. Anthony's Temptation
La Tentation de Saint Antoine 1898
Voluptuous women disturb St. Anthony's prayer. The film was removed by the police from a certain Parisian market for being sacrilegious.

Bluebeard
Barbe Bleue 1901 A great fantasy drama with impressive tableaux: Bluebeard's betrothal party, wedding feast, forbidden room, sinister dread, and death. In the second last scene, Méliès stumbles and breaks his femur; despite his pain, he finishes the shoot.

The Black Devil
Le Diable Noir 1905
An exhausted black demon is asleep in a hotel room, when another traveller arrives and disrupts his rest. Méliès makes the chairs move by camera tricks. As many as 61 different editing operations were needed to multiply the chairs!

Voyage To The Moon
Voyage Dans La Lune 1902
The most famous of Méliès' films, the mother of all sci-fi films. Ten unusual and imaginative cinematograph scenes in thirty tableaux. Six scientists belonging to the Astronomers' Club depart on an expedition to the moon. The film borrows scenes from the novels From The Earth To The Moon (1865) by Jules Verne and First Men In The Moon (1901) by H.G. Wells.

The Brahmin And The Butterfly
La Chrysalide Et Le Papillon 1901 This film is most likely to have been inspired by the silkworm trick performed by the conjuror Buatier de Kolta in 1885. The trick features a silkworm drawn onto a board transforming into a butterfly.

The Wonderful Living Fan
Le Merveilleux Eventail Vivant (Colour) 1901
A maker of magic fans demonstrates an example of his handiwork to a representative of Louis XV in the garden of the Palace of Versailles.

The Witch
La Fée Carabosse (Colour), 1906
A young troubadour visits a witch to see what the future holds in store. The film belongs to a series of children's stories commissioned by the furniture shop Dufayel.

The Conjurer
L'Impressionniste Fin De Siècle 1899
Méliès must have shot this film of tricks twice, since the C’némathèque Méliès found a copy of another version at a flea market.

The One Man Band
L'Homme Orchestre 1900
A man turns into a whole orchestra. Using masks, Méliès performs seven different characters playing seven different instruments simultaneously.

The Coronation Of Edward VII
Le Sacre d'Edouard VII 1902
A staged newsreel of the coronation.

Extraordinary Dislocation
Dislocation Mystérieuse 1901
Again, Méliès plays with detaching limbs.

The Living Playing Cards
Les Cartes Vivantes 1905
The film begins with a true sleight of hand 'the growing cards' developed by Gaston Velle.

The Man With The Rubber Head
L'Homme À La Tête En Caoutchouc 1902
The Man With The Rubber Head is among the tricks that no one could duplicate. I was dressed up as a magician, I acted as if a brilliant idea had occurred to me and so I, to the horror of my partner, cut my head off, placed it on a table, pulled another one out of my pocket and screwed it on in the old head's place. Then I connected the severed head to a pair of bellows with a rubber hose and played around by inflating and deflating it. Finally my assistant inflated it so much that it burst! - Méliès

The Infernal Cake Walk
Le Cake-Walk Infernal 1903
First we see hell. Then it fades to be replaced by a cave with several little demons dancing in fire.

Kingdom Of The Fairies
Au Royaume Des Fées (Colour), 1903
Méliès' great fantasy film in thirty tableaux, one of the major achievements of its time along with Voyage To the Moon. A young dancer caused a scandal at the premiere when she appeared onstage with bare legs.