161-660: Klondike Fever is a 1980 Canadian adventure film , based on the writings of Jack London . It follows London's journey from San Francisco to the Klondike gold fields of the Yukon Territory, Canada in 1898. This article related to a Canadian film of the 1980s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an adventure film is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cinema of Canada Cinema in Canada dates back to
322-533: A Star Films office in New York City, with his brother Gaston Méliès in charge. Gaston had been unsuccessful in the shoe business and agreed to join his more successful brother in the film industry. He travelled to New York in November 1902 and discovered the extent of the infringement in the U.S., such as Biograph having paid royalties on Méliès' film to film promoter Charles Urban . When Gaston opened
483-678: A film school leading to the creation of the Canadian Film Centre by Norman Jewison . The CFDC started investing up to 50% of its budget into films that cost less than $ 500,000. Explosion was the first film to receive financial support from the CFDC. Valérie by Denis Héroux , which was not financially supported by the CFDC, was made at cost of $ 70,000 and made over $ 1 million in Quebec. The CFDC financially supported Héroux's other films Here and Now (L'Initiation) , Love in
644-468: A moratorium declared at the onset of World War I prevented Pathé from taking possession of his home and the Montreuil studio, Méliès was bankrupt and unable to continue making films. In his memoirs, he attributes what Miriam Rosen describes as "his own inability to adapt to the rental system" with Pathé and other companies, his brother Gaston's poor financial decisions, and the horrors of World War I as
805-628: A 300% return on investment. Despite the success of the film Canadian Photoplays did not produce another film and went into voluntary liquidation. He signed a contract with Ralph Connor in 1919, and formed Dominion Films, based in New York, to produce films in Winnipeg. Winnipeg Productions was formed to adapt twelve of Connor's stories, but only five were filmed. Shipman created five companies across Canada in 1922, but only three produced films. He incorporated New Brunswick Films on 23 August 1922, but
966-574: A Four Letter World , Virgin Lovers , and Two Women in Gold (Deux Femmes en or) . Deux Femmes en or was financially successful, with its two million ticket sales remaining the highest in Canadian history, and became the highest grossing Canadian film. The $ 10 million budget was used by October 1971, after the CFDC invested $ 6.7 million into 64 films with an average cost of $ 250,000 per film. The CFDC
1127-549: A French animation unit in 1966, which included Laurent Coderre and Bernard Longpré . Le village enchanté was the first recorded animated feature film in Canadian history and Return to Oz which was based on Tales of the Wizard of Oz , the first recorded Canadian animated television series , was the second recorded animated feature film. In the 1960s filmmakers came from universities throughout Canada. David Cronenberg , Clarke Mackey , and David Secter graduated from
1288-418: A French composition or Latin verse, his pen mechanically sketched portraits or caricatures of his professors or classmates, if not some fantasy palace or an original landscape that already had the look of a theatre set." Often disciplined by teachers for covering his notebooks and textbooks with drawings, young Georges began building cardboard puppet theatres at age 10 and crafted sophisticated marionettes as
1449-505: A Star Films production. In late 1904, Thomas Edison sued the American production company Paley & Steiner over copyright infringement for films that had stories, characters and even shot set-ups exactly like films that Edison had made. Edison also included Pathé Frères , Eberhard Schneider and Star Films in this lawsuit for unspecified reasons. Paley & Steiner settled with Edison out of court (and were later bought out by Edison) and
1610-621: A Way , If You Love This Planet , and Flamenco at 5:15 ). Starting in 1954, the Capital Cost Allowance was able to be used for a 60% tax write-off for film investment and the amount was increased to 100% in 1974. $ 1.2 billion was invested in Canadian film and television in the thirteen years following the increase. The average film budget rose from $ 527,000 to $ 2.6 million in 1979, and $ 3.5 million in 1986. From 1958 to 1967, private film investment accounted for 18% of film investments and it declined to 13.5% in 1968, while
1771-550: A big magic show Les Fantômes du Nil , and he went on an expansive tour in Europe and North Africa . Later that year, Star Films signed an agreement with the Gaumont Film Company to distribute all of its films. In the autumn of 1910, Méliès made a deal with Charles Pathé that destroyed his film career. Méliès accepted a large amount of money to produce films, and in exchange, Pathé Frères distributed and reserved
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#17327729881011932-481: A brief criticizing a government monopoly, with the NFB's crown corporation request being referred to as an "expansionist, monopolistic psychology", and that they were unable to compete with the NFB as it paid no taxes and was exempt from tariffs. The commission's report supported the NFB and its requests for Crown corporation status and a headquarters were accepted. A Canadian tour by Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip
2093-403: A cave, and The Four Troublesome Heads , in which Méliès removes his own head three times and creates a musical chorus. Achieving these effects was extremely difficult, requiring considerable skill. In a 1907 article, Méliès noted: "Every second the actor playing different scenes ten times has to remember, while the film is rolling, exactly what he did at the same point in the preceding scenes and
2254-562: A copy was discovered in 2005 in Paris. That year, Méliès also made two of his most ambitious and well-known films. In the summer he made the historical reconstruction The Dreyfus Affair , a film based on the then-ongoing and controversial political scandal , in which the Jewish French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused and framed for treason by his commanders. Méliès was pro-Dreyfus and
2415-507: A family friend's daughter whose guardians had left her a sizable dowry. They had two children: Georgette, born in 1888, and André, born in 1901. While working at the family factory, Méliès continued to cultivate his interest in stage magic, attending performances at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin , which had been founded by the magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin . He also began taking magic lessons from Emile Voisin, who gave him
2576-543: A film licensing system based on their recommendations. American distributors opposed the policy and lobbied the American government through the MPAA and its president, Jack Valenti . Valenti met with President Ronald Reagan at least twice and Reagan criticized the legislation of a US-Canadian economic summit. 54 members of the United States Congress signed a letter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney opposing
2737-517: A group of Moon aliens , played by acrobats from the Folies Bergère . Taken before the alien king, they manage to escape and are chased back to their spaceship . Then, with the aid of a rope attached to the spaceship, the men, along with an alien, fall from the Moon back to Earth, landing in the ocean (where a superimposed fish tank creates the illusion of the deep ocean). Eventually the spaceship
2898-690: A hotel guest is attacked by a giant bedbug . But more importantly, the Lumière brothers had dispatched camera operators across the world to document it as ethnographic documentarians, intending their invention to be highly important in scientific and historical study. Méliès' Star Film Company, on the other hand, was geared more towards the "fairground clientele" who wanted his specific brand of magic and illusion: art. In these earliest films, Méliès began to experiment with (and often invent) special effects that were unique to filmmaking. This began, according to Méliès' memoirs, by accident when his camera jammed in
3059-427: A large enough market for an independent feature film industry. He supported working with American film companies and stated that "the theatre film business is an international business, dependent when it comes to distribution on an alliance or understanding with American film interests". He travelled to Hollywood in 1944, and the NFB sent scripts to American companies for consideration. Grierson lacked strong support in
3220-647: A monopoly. Grierson was also accused of being involved, but was proven not to be although he resigned as commissioner in 1945. McLean was ordered to assist the Royal Canadian Mounted Police screen NFB employees and the RCMP requested him to fire a list of employees. McLean, who refused to fire any employees without their disloyalty being proven, was not reappointed as commissioner and replaced by William Arthur Irwin in 1950. Irwin also refused to fire employees without proven disloyalty and reduced
3381-454: A new version of Baron Munchausen with Hans Richter and a film that was to be titled Le Fantôme du métro ( Phantom of the Metro ) with Henri Langlois , Georges Franju , Marcel Carné and Jacques Prévert . He also acted in a few advertisements with Prévert in his later years. Langlois and Franju had met Méliès in 1935 with René Clair , and in 1936, they rented an abandoned building on
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#17327729881013542-478: A painted set as inspired by the conventions of magic and musical theatre. For the remainder of his film career, he divided his time between Montreuil and the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, where he "arrived at the studio at seven a.m. to put in a 10-hour day building sets and props. At five, he would change his clothes and set out for Paris in order to be at the theatre office by six to receive callers. After
3703-488: A place for the film industry due to the quality of its films, distance between major urban areas, and different electrical systems. Early films were used to as promotional material for companies, promote immigration, or displays of scenic locations including Niagara Falls . The Edison Company created some of the first films in Canada by documenting the Klondike Gold Rush , Canadian soldiers leaving to fight in
3864-421: A professor's head is cut off in the middle of a speech and continues talking until it is returned to his body. When he purchased the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, Méliès also inherited its chief mechanic Eugène Calmels and such performers as Jehanne D'Alcy , who became his mistress and later his second wife. While running the theatre, Méliès also worked as a political cartoonist for the liberal newspaper La Griffe , which
4025-510: A quick dinner, he was back to the theatre for the eight o'clock show, during which he sketched his set designs, and then returned to Montreuil to sleep. On Fridays and Saturdays, he shot scenes prepared during the week, and Sundays and holidays were taken up with a theatre matinee, three film screenings, and an evening presentation that lasted until eleven-thirty." In total, Méliès made 78 films in 1896 and 52 in 1897. By this time, he had covered every genre of film that he would continue to film for
4186-468: A reverse shot in A Dinner Under Difficulties , where he hand cranked a strip of film backwards through his camera to achieve the effect. He also experimented with superimposition , where he filmed actors in a black background, then rewinded the film through the camera and exposed the footage again to create a double exposure. These films included The Cave of the Demons , in which transparent ghosts haunt
4347-483: A showing conducted by Andrew M. Holland and George C. Holland, where films by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. such as The Kiss were shown, in Ottawa , from 21 July to 28 August 1896, was the first. The Saint-Laurent showing was overlooked as English researchers did not search through French sources. Léo-Ernest Ouimet stated that he attended the showing and he was used as evidence of it until Lacasse found newspaper coverage of
4508-460: A single type of film perforation, in order to thwart Edison and the MPPC. Like others, Méliès was unhappy with the monopoly that Edison had created and wanted to fight back. The members of the congress agreed to no longer sell films, but to lease them for four-month periods only to members of their own organization, and to adopt a standardized film perforation count on all films. Méliès was unhappy about
4669-755: A special genre, entirely distinct from the ordinary cinematographic views consisting of street scenes or genre subjects." Like the Lumière brothers and Pathé , Star Films also made " stag films " such as Peeping Tom at the Seaside , A Hypnotist at Work and After the Ball , which is the only one of these films that has survived, and stars Jeanne d'Alcy stripping down to a flesh-coloured leotard and being bathed by her maid. From 1896 to 1900, Méliès made 10 advertisements for products such as whiskey, chocolate, and baby cereal. In September 1897, Méliès attempted to turn
4830-567: A teenager. Méliès graduated from the Lycée with a baccalauréat in 1880. After completing his education, Méliès joined his brothers in the family shoe business, where he learned how to sew. After three years' mandatory military service, his father sent him to London to work as a clerk for a family friend and to improve his English. While in London, he began to visit the Egyptian Hall , run by
4991-504: A theatre owner, controlled the largest private film studio in Canada, Toronto International Film Studios, two distribution companies, International Film Distributors and Allied Artists Pictures, a television station, CJOH-DT , and multiple production companies. He entered film production with The Mask in 1961. Taylor, unlike other members of the AMPPLC, supported state involvement in feature film production. Bryant Fryer founded one of
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5152-539: A tip from Jehanne d'Alcy, who may have seen Robert W. Paul 's Animatograph film projector while on tour in England, Méliès traveled to London. He bought an Animatograph from Paul, as well as several short films sold by Paul and by the Edison Manufacturing Company . By April 1896, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin was showing films as part of its daily performances. Méliès, after studying the design of
5313-490: A way to control the film industry in the United States and Europe. The companies that joined the conglomerate were Edison , Biograph , Vitagraph , Essanay , Selig , Lubin , Kalem , American Pathé and Méliès' Star Film Company , with Edison acting as president of the collective. Star Films was obligated to supply the MPPC with one thousand feet of film per week, and Méliès made 58 films that year in fulfillment of
5474-407: Is the earliest known colour film shown in Canada. The development of a Canadian film industry was hampered by the country's low population density, it had six million inhabitants and only Toronto and Montreal had more than 100,000 people in 1905, and the lack of domestic vaudeville as most of the acts came from the United States, United Kingdom, and France. Andrew Holland was critical of Canada as
5635-624: Is towed ashore and the returning adventurers are celebrated by the townspeople. At 14 minutes, it was Méliès' longest film up to that date and cost 10,000 francs to produce. The film was an enormous success in France and around the world, and Méliès sold both black-and-white and hand-coloured versions to exhibitors. The film made Méliès famous in the United States, where such producers as Thomas Edison , Siegmund Lubin and William Selig had produced illegal copies and made large amounts of money from them. This copyright violation caused Méliès to open
5796-533: The First Red Scare . Adanac was reorganized in 1919, with Brownridge as its managing director and Denis Tansey , a member of parliament, as its president. The Great Shadow was released in 1920, after being filmed in Canada rather than New York as Brownridge wanted to create a domestic film industry, and was a critical and financial success although the CPR pulled its public support before its release. However,
5957-565: The National Film Finance Corporation and Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée . The Interdepartmental Committee on the Possible Development of a Feature Film Industry in Canada, under the leadership of NFB commissioner Roberge, was formed by the secretary of state. The committee submitted a report to the 19th Canadian Ministry for the creation of a loan fund to aid the development of
6118-582: The Second Boer War , and George V , the Duke of York , arriving in Canada in 1902. James Freer is believed to have been the first Canadian to produce films. He purchased an Edison camera and projector and started filming agriculture activities and Canadian Pacific Railway trains in 1897, and toured the United Kingdom with the sponsorship of the CPR in 1898, and a second less successful tour
6279-465: The Secretary of State reported that a content quota would not work as a 50% quote would generate less revenue than a 5% sales increase for foreign films. The study stated that new tax regulations and investments by the CFDC could make the Canadian film industry internationally competitive. The budget for the CFDC was limited to a few million and its budget from 1982 to 1983 was $ 4.5 million. However,
6440-522: The University of Toronto . John Hofsess , Ivan Reitman , and Peter Rowe graduated from McMaster University . Jack Darcus and Larry Kent graduated from the University of British Columbia . Cronenberg received financial support from the CFDC and Shivers was their most successful investment, with a budget of $ 150,000 ($ 75,000 from the CFDC) and gross of $ 5 million. 708 feature films, over twice
6601-578: The Virgin Mary comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress . This effect was used again in The Man with the Rubber Head , in which Méliès plays a scientist who expands his own head to enormous proportions. This experiment, along with the others that he had perfected over the years, was used in his most well-known and beloved film later that year. In May 1902, Méliès made the film A Trip to
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6762-658: The War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry , was founded in 1940. NFB productions such as The World in Action was watched by 30-40 million people per month in the United Kingdom and United States in 1943, and Canada Carries On was watched by 2.25 million people by 1944. The audience for NFB newsreels reached 40-50 million per week by 1944. Grierson opposed feature film production as he believed that Canada did not have
6923-668: The World in Action newsreel being considered too left-wing. Leo Dolan, an ally of Hepburn and the head of the Canadian Government Travel Bureau, accused Grierson of being Jewish and a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation supporter. The Gouzenko Affair implicated Freda Linton, one of Grierson's secretaries, and the organization was criticized by the Progressive Conservative Party for subversive tendencies, financial waste, and being
7084-549: The féerie Rip's Dream , based on the Rip Van Winkle legend and the opera by Robert Planquette . In 1906, his output included an updated, comedic adaptation of the Faust legend The Merry Frolics of Satan and The Witch . The féerie style that Méliès was best known began to lose popularity, and he began to make films in other genres, such as crime films and family films . In the U.S., Gaston Méliès had to reduce
7245-568: The féerie The Conquest of the Pole . Although inspired by such contemporary events as Robert Peary 's expedition to the North Pole in 1909 and Roald Amundsen 's expedition to the South Pole in 1911, the film also included such fantastic elements as a griffin -headed aerobus and a snow giant that was operated by 12 stage hands as well as elements reminiscent of Jules Verne and some of
7406-472: The 13-minute-long Joan of Arc . He also made The One-Man Band , in which Méliès continued to fine-tune his special effects by multiplying himself on camera to play seven instruments simultaneously. Another notable film was The Christmas Dream , which merged cinematic effects with traditional Christmas pantomime scenes. In 1901, Méliès continued producing successful films and was at the peak of his popularity. His films that year included The Brahmin and
7567-568: The 1910s and 1920s are lost. Yves Lever stated that Larente-Homier's 1922 film Madeleine de Verchères was the first truly Québécois fictional feature film. Larente-Homier's work was later destroyed by his son due to orders from the Fire Bureau as the film reels were flammable. Ernest Shipman established multiple film companies in cities and would produce a limited number of films using local money before moving to another area. Unlike other Canadian filmmakers he sought financial support from
7728-475: The 1920s and 1930s. Shipman oversaw the production the most expensive film up to that point. Brownridge's career led to Carry on, Sergeant! and its failure caused a decline in the film industry. The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau was formed in 1918, and expanded to sound and 16 mm film in the 1930s before merging into the National Film Board of Canada . The NFB expanded under
7889-566: The American market. In 1919, incorporated Canadian Photoplays with a financial capital of $ 250,000 in Alberta. He started production on Wapi, the Walrus , but retitled it to Back to God's Country to capitalize God's Country and the Woman , starring his wife Nell Shipman . The film was a critical and financial success, with it grossing over $ 500,000 in its first year, and Shipman's investors saw
8050-623: The Animatograph, modified the machine so that it served as a film camera. As raw film stock and film processing labs were not yet available in Paris, Méliès purchased unperforated film in London, and personally developed and printed his films through trial and error. In September 1896, Méliès, Lucien Korsten, and Lucien Reulos patented the Kinétographe Robert-Houdin, a cast iron camera-projector, which Méliès referred to as his "coffee grinder" and "machine gun" because of
8211-554: The Butterfly , in which Méliès portrays a Brahmin who transforms a caterpillar into a beautiful woman with wings, but is himself turned into a caterpillar. He also made the féerie Red Riding Hood and Blue Beard , both based on stories from Charles Perrault . In Blue Beard , Méliès plays the eponymous wife-murderer and co-stars with Jeanne d'Alcy and Bleuette Bernon . The film is an early example of parallel cross-cutting and match cuts of characters moving from one room to
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#17327729881018372-586: The CFDC accounted for 37.5%. Following the tax write-off increase private investment rose to account for 47% of film investment between 1975 and 1978 while the CFDC declined to 15%. Silence of the North was the first film with American backing to receive CCA certification. The Film and Video Production Tax Credit replaced the Capital Cost Allowance in 1995. In 1962, Roberge proposed the creation of an organization to aid in film finance based on
8533-460: The CFDC five years to recover its first $ 1 million investment, but recovered $ 1 million in 1977 alone. From 1977 to 1978, the CFDC invested $ 1.6 million into twenty films and its investments rose to $ 10.8 million into 34 films from 1979 to 1980. Between 1968 and 1978, the organization funded 103 English-language films, but only Black Christmas , Death Weekend , Heart Farm , Shivers , and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz were profitable to
8694-489: The CFDC. The Toronto Filmmakers' Coop, an organization with 150 filmmakers, sent a letter with the endorsement of 200 filmmakers to Gérard Pelletier asking for the creation of a content quota that required distributors to have 15% of their films be Canadian. Pelletier announced the creation of a theatre in the National Capital Region that exclusively showed Canadian films in 1972. A study published by
8855-501: The Canadian film industry in 1952 came from Crawley Films. France Film and other companies started creating French film productions in the 1930s. Maria Chapdelaine is commonly, although incorrectly, regarded as the first French-Canadian sound movie. Étienne Brûlé gibier de potence was the first colour feature film made in Quebec and the first Canadian colour film shot in English and French. Joseph-Alexandre DeSève monopolized
9016-638: The Canadian film industry. The proposal was approved in October 1965, and legislation, the Canadian Film Development Corporation Act of 1966–67, for its creation was introduced in June 1966, before being approved on 3 March 1967. The Canadian Film Development Corporation was established with a budget of $ 10 million in 1967. In February 1968, Spender was appointed as its director along with a five-member board. Canada lack of
9177-596: The Canadian government and some of his films received opposition from members of the government. Inside Fighting Russia was criticized for its support of the Russian Revolution and Balkan Powderkeg for criticizing the United Kingdom's policy in the Balkans. Grierson and the NFB were attacked during the onset of the Cold War . The Federal Bureau of Investigation created a file on Grierson in 1942, due to
9338-588: The Cinema Society arranged a place for Méliès, his granddaughter Madeleine and Jeanne d'Alcy at La Maison de Retraite du Cinéma, the film industry's retirement home in Orly. Méliès was greatly relieved to be admitted to the home and wrote to an American journalist: "My best satisfaction in all is to be sure not to be one day without bread and home !" In Orly, Méliès worked with several younger directors on scripts for films that never came to be made. These included
9499-473: The London illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne , and he developed a lifelong passion for stage magic . Méliès returned to Paris in 1885 with a new desire: to study painting at the École des Beaux-Arts . His father, however, refused to support him financially as an artist, so Georges settled with supervising the machinery at the family factory. That same year, he avoided his family's desire for him to marry his brother's sister-in-law and instead married Eugénie Génin,
9660-663: The Moon which was loosely based on Jules Verne 's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon , its 1870 sequel Around the Moon , and H. G. Wells ' 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon . In the film, Méliès stars as Professor Barbenfouillis, a character similar to the astronomer he played in The Astronomer's Dream in 1898. Professor Barbenfouillis is the President of the Astronomer's Club and proposes an expedition to
9821-604: The Moon. A space vehicle in the form of a large artillery shell is built in his laboratory, and he uses it to launch six men (including himself) on a voyage to the Moon. The vehicle is shot out of a large cannon into space and hits the Man in the Moon in the eye. The group explores the Moon's surface before going to sleep. As they dream, they are observed by the Moon goddess Phoebe , played by Bleuette Bernon , who causes it to snow. Later, while underground, they are attacked and captured by
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#17327729881019982-873: The Méliès Manufacturing Company to Fort Lee , New Jersey. In 1910, Gaston established the Star Film Ranch, a studio in San Antonio, Texas , where he began to produce Westerns . By 1911, Gaston had renamed his branch of Star Films American Wildwest Productions , and opened a studio in Southern California . He produced over 130 films from 1910 to 1912, and he was the primary source for fulfilling Star Films' obligation to Thomas Edison's company. From 1910 to 1912, Georges Méliès produced very few films. In 1910, Méliès temporarily stopped making films because he preferred to create
10143-544: The NFB's first French-Canadian filmmaker in 1941, and directed La Cité de Notre-Dame , the board's first in-house French-language film, in 1942. The number of French-Canadian employees grew to seventeen by 1945, and a quarter of the board's budget was spent on French productions. The Massey Commission and Gratien Gélinas , a member of the NFB's Board of Governors, called for an improvement in French-language productions, but Premier Maurice Duplessis opposed it. In 1963, À l’heure de la décolonisation , directed by Monique Fortier,
10304-399: The National Film Act, which he drafted, was passed in 1939 causing the creation of the NFB. Grierson became the first Film Commissioner of the NFB and served until the end of World War II . Employment rose from fifty to over seven hundred from 1941 to 1945, although it was cut by 40% after the war ended. Grierson selected McLean to work as assistant commissioner and Stuart Legg to oversee
10465-434: The Quebec Minister of Agriculture , used film for education purposes and the Service de ciné-photographie was established in 1941. The War Office Cinematographic Committee, one of the first times the national government was involved in filmmaking, was formed in 1916, and was led by Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook . The committee contracted the Topical Film Company before buying a controlling share. The committee aided in
10626-423: The Seas , and a short version of Shakespeare's Hamlet . Yet such film critics as Jean Mitry , Georges Sadoul , and others have declared that Méliès' work began to decline, and film scholar Miriam Rosen wrote the works started to "lapse into the repetition of old formulas on the one hand and an uneasy imitation of new trends on the other." In 1908, Thomas Edison created the Motion Picture Patents Company as
10787-533: The Théâtre Robert-Houdin by that August. At the end of 1896 he and Reulos founded the Star Film Company , with Korsten acting as his primary camera operator. Many of his early films were copies and remakes of the Lumière brothers ' films, made to compete with the 2000 daily customers of the Grand Café. This included his first film Playing Cards , which is similar to an early Lumière film. However, many of his other early films reflected Méliès' knack for theatricality and spectacle, such as A Terrible Night , in which
10948-419: The Théâtre Robert-Houdin created a special celebration performance, including Méliès' first new stage trick in several years, Les Phénomènes du Spiritisme . At the same time, he was again remodeling and expanding his studio at Montreuil by installing electric lights, adding a second stage and buying costumes from other sources. Méliès's films for 1905 include the adventure The Palace of the Arabian Nights and
11109-413: The Théâtre Robert-Houdin into a movie theatre with fewer magic shows and film screenings every night. But by late December 1897, film screenings were limited to Sunday nights only. Méliès made only 27 films in 1898, but his work was becoming more ambitious and elaborate. His films included a historical reconstruction of the sinking of the USS Maine titled Divers at Work on the Wreck of the "Maine" ,
11270-425: The Théâtre Robert-Houdin. The property also included a shed for dressing rooms and a hangar for set construction. Because colours often photograph in unexpected ways on black-and-white film, all sets, costumes and actors' makeup were coloured in different tones of gray. Méliès described the studio as "the union of the photography workshop (in its gigantic proportions) and the theatre stage." Actors performed in front of
11431-541: The United States. The company was processing twenty-two million feet of film in per year by 1929. ASN constructed a sound stage in 1936, and produced House in Order , which was its only feature film in the 1930s. Brownridge was sent to New York in 1925 by the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau to gain a distribution contract, but only negotiated one with Cranfield and Clarke after a year of high expenses. Treasurer William Herbert Price criticized Brownridge stating that his "travelling expenses are very high and I do not see there
11592-510: The actress Jehanne d'Alcy . The couple scraped together a living by working at a small candy and toy stand d'Alcy owned in the main hall of the Gare Montparnasse . Around the same time, the gradual rediscovery of Méliès's career began. In 1924, the journalist Georges-Michel Coissac managed to track him down and interview him for a book on cinema history. Coissac, who hoped to underline the importance of French pioneers to early film,
11753-692: The amount made in the past fifty years, were made during the 1970s. Georges M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( / m eɪ ˈ l j ɛ s / ; French: [meljɛs] ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magician , actor , and film director . He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of cinema , primarily in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Méliès rose to prominence creating " trick films " and became well known for his innovative use of special effects , popularizing such techniques as substitution splices , multiple exposures , time-lapse photography , dissolves , and hand-painted colour . He
11914-515: The available illusions and tricks were out of date, and attendance to the theatre was low even after Méliès' initial renovations. Over the next nine years, Méliès personally created over 30 new illusions that brought more comedy and melodramatic pageantry to performances, much like those Méliès had seen in London, and attendance greatly improved. One of his best-known illusions was the Recalcitrant Decapitated Man , in which
12075-506: The branch office in New York, it included a charter that partly read "In opening a factory and office in New York we are prepared and determined energetically to pursue all counterfeiters and pirates. We will not speak twice, we will act!" Gaston was assisted in the U.S. by Lucien Reulos, who was the husband of Gaston's sister-in-law, Louise de Mirmont. Méliès' great success in 1902 continued with his three other major productions of that year. In The Coronation of Edward VII , Méliès reenacts
12236-577: The bureau had 2,000 films in its library, distributed 1,500 reels of film per month, and made one feature-length documentary, Cinderella of the Farms in 1931, but the bureau was dissolved after the Ontario Liberal Party won in the 1934 Ontario general election . Albert Tessier and Maurice Proulx produced large amounts of films in French at a time when it was uncommon. Joseph Morin ,
12397-406: The bureau needed to transition to sound films or else it would lose its access to theatrical releases, but the organization did not gain the equipment until 1934, and by then it had lost its theatrical distributors. Badgley was able to get a 16 mm film facility for the bureau in 1931. The organization's budget fell from $ 75,000 in 1930, to $ 65,000 in 1931, and $ 45,000 in 1932. However, its budget
12558-499: The by then cliché magic trick of a person vanishing from the stage by means of a trap door is enhanced by the person turning into a skeleton until finally reappearing on the stage. In September 1896, Méliès began to build a film studio on his property in Montreuil , just outside Paris. The main stage building was made entirely of glass walls and ceilings so as to allow in sunlight for film exposure and its dimensions were identical to
12719-641: The carriage procession in the film. The film was financially successful and Edward VII himself was said to have enjoyed it. Next, Méliès made the féeries Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants , based on the novel by Jonathan Swift , and Robinson Crusoe , based on the novel by Daniel Defoe . In 1903, Méliès made The Kingdom of the Fairies , which film critic Jean Mitry has called "undoubtedly Méliès's best film, and in any case
12880-496: The case never went to trial. In 1905, Victor de Cottens asked Méliès to collaborate with him on The Merry Deeds of Satan , a theatrical revue for the Théâtre du Châtelet . Méliès contributed two short films for the performances, Le Voyage dans l'espace (The Space Trip) and Le Cyclone (The Cyclone), and co-wrote the scenario with de Cottons for the entire revue. 1905 was also the 100th birthday of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin , and
13041-600: The company went bankrupt with Brownridge balming Harley Knoles 's wastefulness and Selznick Pictures 's distribution policy. Brownridge sold the Trenton studio to the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau in 1924, and it continued to be used, with Carry on, Sergeant! as the sole fictional work filmed there, until Mitchell Hepburn ordered its closure in 1934, and it was turned into a community centre. Motion Skreenadz, incorporated in 1920, conducted
13202-516: The cost of the budget. The production difficulties led to internal company problems and Clarke was removed as general manager although he remained vice-president. The film was released in 1928, to mixed-to-negative reviews and was only distributed in Ontario before the company went bankrupt in 1929. Brownridge attempted to recut and release the film in 1930, stating that it "would gross at least $ 200,000", but it did not happen. The Ontario government
13363-629: The creation of the British Columbia Patriotic and Educational Picture Service . It was headed by A. R. Baker and mainly distributed films produced under contract by Arthur D. Kean . The provincial legislature passed legislation requiring the display of at least one ten-minute education film or travelogue during all of the programs. The Motion Picture Branch of the Bureau of Publications was created by Saskatchewan in 1924, to produce education films. The Ontario Motion Picture Bureau
13524-565: The demand and only three of the thirty-six requested were fired. The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences , with Massey as its chair, was formed in 1949. The NFB submitted a brief asking to have a headquarters constructed, budget increases, and to become a Crown corporation . Robert Winters , whose ministry oversaw the NFB, stated that its brief did not represent government policy. The Association of Motion Picture Producers and Laboratories of Canada submitted
13685-544: The device. (For the same reasons, they refused the Musée Grévin 's 20,000 francs bid and the Folies Bergère 's 50,000 francs bid the same night.) Méliès, intent on finding a film projector for the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, turned elsewhere; numerous other inventors in Europe and America were experimenting with machines similar to the Lumières' invention, albeit at a less technically sophisticated level. Possibly acting on
13846-533: The distribution of French-language films through France-Film. France-Film arose from the distribution of Maria Chapdelaine which sold 70,000 tickets in Canada. He also aided in the production of Notre-Dame de la Mouise in response to the papal encyclical Vigilanti Cura . DeSève purchased Renaissance Films following the success of The Music Master . DeSève produced four films through Renaissance Films Distribution. Paul L'Anglais formed Quebec Productions filmed Whispering City in English and French, under
14007-480: The earliest known display of film in Saint-Laurent, Quebec , in 1896. The film industry in Canada has been dominated by the United States, which has utilized Canada as a shooting location and to bypass British film quota laws, throughout its history. Canadian filmmakers, English and French , have been active in the development of cinema in the United States . Films by Thomas A. Edison, Inc. were some of
14168-588: The end of his life. By late 1937, Méliès had become very ill and Langlois arranged for him to be admitted to the Léopold Bellan Hospital in Paris. Langlois had become close to him, and he and Franju visited him shortly before his death. When they arrived, Méliès showed them one of his last drawings of a champagne bottle with the cork popped and bubbling over. He then told them: "Laugh, my friends. Laugh with me, laugh for me, because I dream for you." Georges Méliès died of cancer on 21 January 1938 at
14329-462: The event in La Presse . R.A. Hardie and F.H. Wall also presented films in Winnipeg from 18 to 25 July 1896. Marie Tréourret de Kerstrat and her son Henry de Grandsaignes d’Hauterives were some of the first French people to display films to French Canadians and projected hundreds during their tours from 1897 to 1906. They showed 8,000 feet of hand-coloured film done by Georges Méliès , which
14490-489: The exact place where he was on the stage." Méliès made 48 films in 1899 as he continued to experiment with special effects, for example in the early horror film Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb . The film is not a historical reconstruction of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra , and instead depicts her mummy being resurrected in the modern era . Robbing Cleopatra's Tomb was believed to be a lost film until
14651-580: The failure of Blue Water ended Shipman's career. Trenton, Ontario , despite its small size, was a major film production area and had one of the few studios to last longer than a few years. Canadian National Features, founded by George Brownridge, construction a studio in the town and raised a financial capital of $ 500,000, with $ 278,000 coming within the first week, in 1916. However, the company suspended production after spending $ 43,000 on its first two films, The Marriage Trap and Power , and declared bankruptcy with $ 79,000 in assets. The studio in Trenton
14812-467: The film depicts Dreyfus sympathetically as falsely accused and unjustly incarcerated on the Devil's Island prison. At screenings of the film, fights broke out between people on different sides of the debate and the police eventually banned the final part of the film where Dreyfus returns to prison. Later that year, Méliès made the féerie Cinderella , based on Charles Perrault 's fairy tale . The film
14973-583: The film industry through the Capital Cost Allowance and Telefilm Canada . The first time a film was displayed in Canada, and one of the first times in North America, was at an event organized by Louis Minier and Louis Pupier using a cinematograph in Saint-Laurent, Quebec , on 27 June 1896. Prior to the discovery of the Saint-Laurent showing by Germain Lacasse in 1984, it was believed that
15134-677: The film to 33 minutes, and it too was unprofitable. After similar experiences with The Knight of the Snows and The Voyage of the Bourrichon Family in late 1912, Méliès broke his contract with Pathé. Meanwhile, Gaston Méliès had taken his family and a film crew of over twenty people to Tahiti in the summer of 1912. For the rest of that year and well into 1913, he traveled throughout the South Pacific and Asia, and sent film footage back to his son in New York City. The footage
15295-407: The film was based on an opera by Charles Gounod . Méliès also created a combined version of the two films that aligned with the main arias of the operas. He continued making " high art " films later in 1904 such as The Barber of Seville . These films were popular with both audiences and critics at the time of their release, and helped Méliès establish more prestige. His major production of 1904
15456-547: The first newsreels in Canada. Ouimet, who was a pioneer for Canadian newsreels, created Specialty Film Import in 1915, as a distributor, but his newsreel and distribution companies were sold in 1923, and he unsuccessfully worked in the United States in the 1920s. At the peak of Ouimet's career 1.5 million Canadians were watching his newsreels twice per week. Domestic newsreel companies were unsuccessful after branches of American companies, Fox Canadian News and Canadian Kinograms, were established. Most sound films from Quebec in
15617-500: The first French-Canadian to serve as the NFB's commissioner. Duplessis died in 1959, and Quebec Liberal Party gained control while the Liberal Party won in the 1963 Canadian federal election . The Liberals supported a policy of bilingualism and biculturalism. A French-language branch of the NFB that was independent of its English-language productions was formed in 1964, under the leadership of Pierre Juneau . Drylanders ,
15778-440: The first animation companies in Canada and made six silhouette films from 1927 to 1935. Norman McLaren was brought to Canada from Scotland by Grierson in 1941. McLaren recruited English-Canadian animators from OCAD University , including George Dunning , Evelyn Lambart , Grant Munro , and Robert Verrall . McLaren recruited French-Canadian animators from École des beaux-arts de Montréal , including René Jodoin . Jodoin created
15939-492: The first times artificial light was used for cinematography. The films were projected as Paulus Chantant at the Ba-Ta-Clan . There, Paulus sat behind the cinema screen and sang the songs – thus giving the illusion of cinema with sound. That same year, Georges Brunel wrote that "MM. Méliès and Reulos have, above all, made a speciality of fantastic or artistic scenes, reproductions of theatre scenes, etc., so as to create
16100-471: The first to arrive in Canada and early films made in the country were produced by Edison Studios . Canadian Pacific Railway and other railways supported early filmmaking including James Freer , whose Ten Years in Manitoba was the first known film by a Canadian. Evangeline is the earliest recorded Canadian feature film. George Brownridge and Ernest Shipman were major figures in Canadian cinema in
16261-776: The government of British Columbia and the Northern Railway Company. The Grand Trunk Railway entered the industry by hiring Butcher's Film Service in 1909. The CPR hired the Edison Company to film in Canada and they sent nine people, including J. Searle Dawley , Henry Cronjager , and Mabel Trunnelle , in 1910. They were provided a specialized train and the RMS Empress of India and produced thirteen films. Silent films used intertitles in English and French, but sound films were mostly produced in English. The first recorded feature film created in Canada
16422-523: The illusion of a character changing size . He achieved this effect by "advancing the camera forward" on a pulley-drawn chair system, which was perfected to allow the camera operator to accurately adjust focus and for the actor to adjust his or her position in the frame as needed. This effect began with The Devil and the Statue , in which Méliès plays Satan and grows to the size of a giant to terrorize William Shakespeare 's Juliet , but then shrinks when
16583-485: The imaginativeness of the settings and the sumptuous tableaux made the film a masterpiece for its day." Later in 1904, Folies Bergère director Victor de Cottens invited Méliès to create a special effects film to be included in his theatre's revue. The result was An Adventurous Automobile Trip , a satire of Leopold II of Belgium . The film was screened at the Folies Bergère before Méliès began to sell it as
16744-423: The leadership of John Grierson . The Canadian Cooperation Project between the government and Motion Picture Association of America from 1948 to 1958, negatively affected Canadian filmmaking. Internal divisions between English and French Canadians within the NFB starting in the 1940s led to the creation of an independent branch for French language productions by the 1960s. The government provided financial support to
16905-408: The legislation. The legislation was not tabled and it failed. F. R. Crawley , who was involved in filmmaking for a decade, and Judith Crawley created Île d'Orléans in 1938, and its success led to a $ 3,000 loan from F. R. Crawley's father that created Crawley Films. It employment rose from 6 in 1946, 33 in 1949, and around 100 by the 1950s. One-sixth of the $ 3 million worth of films produced by
17066-479: The magic trick film The Famous Box Trick , and the féerie The Astronomer's Dream . In this film, Méliès plays an astronomer who has the Moon cause his laboratory to transform and demons and angels to visit him. He also made one of his first of many religious satires with The Temptation of Saint Anthony , in which a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross is transformed into a seductive woman. He continued to experiment with his in-camera special effects, such as
17227-572: The main reasons that he stopped making movies. The final crisis was the death of Méliès' first wife, Eugénie Génin, in May 1913, leaving him alone to raise their twelve-year-old son, André. The war shut the Théâtre Robert-Houdin for a year, and Méliès left Paris with his two children for several years. In 1917, the French Army turned the main studio building at his Montreuil property into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Méliès and his family then turned
17388-532: The majority of film production in western Canada and brought colour film production to British Columbia. Leon C. Shelly gained control over Motion Skreenadz and Vancouver Motion Pictures from 1936 to 1937. He extended the company to Toronto in 1945, but relocated the company entirely to Toronto in 1946. The company was reorganized into Shelly Films, but production of non-newsreels was ended in favor of focusing on film laboratories . British Columbia's government agencies used promotional films from 1908 to 1919, before
17549-667: The men are traveling up to the highest peaks of the Alps , their vehicle continues moving upwards and takes them unexpectedly to the Sun, which has a face much like the man in the moon and swallows the vehicle. Eventually the men use a submarine to launch back to planet Earth and into the ocean. They are greeted back home by adoring admirers. The film was 24 minutes long and was a success. Film critic Lewis Jacobs has said that "the film expressed all of Méliès talents ... The complexity of his tricks, his resourcefulness with mechanical contrivances,
17710-573: The middle of a take and "a Madeleine-Bastille bus changed into a hearse and women changed into men. The substitution trick, called the stop trick , had been discovered." This same stop trick effect had already been used by Thomas Edison when depicting a decapitation in The Execution of Mary Stuart ; however, Méliès' film effects and unique style of film magic were his own. He first used these effects in The Vanishing Lady , in which
17871-694: The most intensely poetic". The Los Angeles Times called the film "an interesting exhibit of the limits to which moving picture making can be carried in the hands of experts equipped with time and money to carry out their devices". Prints of the film survive in the film archives of the British Film Institute and the U.S. Library of Congress . Méliès continued the year by perfecting many of his camera effects, such as more fast-paced transformations in Ten Ladies in One Umbrella and
18032-592: The next two years it was screened in 1,249 Canadian theatres where it was watched by a record two million people and the film was also screened in forty other countries. The film cost $ 88,000, but the NFB gained a profit of $ 150,000 and the film's success was one of the reasons Grierson stated that Irwin "saved the Film Board". It was seen by over two million people within two months. The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau and Associated Screen News of Canada had no French-Canadian employees. Vincent Paquette became
18193-536: The next. The Edison Company's 1902 film Jack and the Beanstalk , directed by Edwin S. Porter , was considered a less successful American version of several Méliès films, particularly Blue Beard . That year, Méliès also made Off to Bloomingdale Asylum , a blackface burlesque that includes four white bus passengers transforming into one large black passenger, who is then shot by the bus driver. In 1902, Méliès began to experiment with camera movement to create
18354-638: The noise that it made. By 1897 technology had caught up and better cameras were put on sale in Paris, leading Méliès to discard his own camera and purchase several better cameras made by Gaumont , the Lumières , and Pathé . Méliès directed over 500 films from 1896 to 1913, ranging in length from 1 minute to 40 minutes. In subject matter, these films are often similar to the magic theatre shows that Méliès had been doing, containing " tricks " and impossible events, such as objects disappearing or changing size. These early special effects films were essentially devoid of plot. The special effects were used only to show what
18515-586: The obligation. Gaston Méliès established his own studio in Chicago , the Méliès Manufacturing Company, which helped his brother fulfill the obligation to Edison, although Gaston produced no films in 1908. That year, Méliès made the ambitious film Humanity Through the Ages . This pessimistic film retells the history of humans from Cain and Abel to the Hague Peace Conference of 1907. The film
18676-667: The official bootmaker of the Dutch court before a fire ruined his business. Eventually the two married, founded a high-quality boot factory on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, and had sons Henri and Gaston ; by the time their third son Georges, had been born, the family had become wealthy. Georges Méliès attended the Lycée Michelet from age seven until it was bombed during the Franco-Prussian War ; he
18837-493: The only French-language feature films produced in Canada in that period. Bush Pilot was the only English-language feature film created by a Canadian company in the 1940s. Pour la suite du monde was the first Canadian film shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival . Canadians had to import colour 35 mm film until 1967, as Canada did not produce any internally. By the 1960s Nat Taylor ,
18998-676: The opportunity to perform his first public shows, at the Cabinet Fantastique of the Grévin Wax Museum and, later, at the Galerie Vivienne . In 1888, Méliès' father retired, and Georges Méliès sold his share of the family shoe business to his two brothers. With the money from the sale and from his wife's dowry, he purchased the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. Although the theatre was "superb" and equipped with lights , levers, trap doors, and several automata , many of
19159-725: The organization had its role expanded to include television in 1983, and administered the Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund. The television fund was initially given an annual budget of $ 60 million. An annual budget of $ 30 million through the Feature Film Fund was created in 1986, and an annual budget of $ 17 million through the Feature Film Distribution Fund was created in 1988. The organization's combined budget grew to $ 146 million by 1989. A report
19320-431: The organization's first English language feature-length fiction film, was released in 1963. Kathleen Shannon organized Studio D , the first publicly funded feminist film-production unit in the world, in 1974, and produced 125 films before its closure in 1996. However, there would be no French version of Studio D until the formation of Studio B in 1986. The studio produced three Oscar winning films by 1984 ( I'll Find
19481-555: The production of distribution of D. W. Griffith 's Hearts of the World . The committee was dissolved after World War I and its shares in Topical Film Company were sold, which were donated to war charities. The Associated Screen News of Canada was founded by Bernard Norrish in 1920, and the CPR held a majority control of its stock. The company grew from two employees in 1920, to over one hundred by 1930, and focused on
19642-423: The production of newsreels, theatrical shorts, and sponsored films. It was the largest Canadian film company until the growth of Crawley Films in the 1950s. It was one of Canada's longest lasting film production companies with Crawley Films and the National Film Board of Canada being one of the few to outlast it. Before ASN constructed a film laboratory all of the film print distributed in Canada were processed in
19803-533: The productions. Lest We Forget , Canada's first feature-length war documentary with sound, was released in 1935. Grierson made efforts to increase the theatrical distribution of NFB films, primarily its war-related films, as he was coordinating wartime information for the United Kingdom in North America. Famous Players aided in distribution and the Canadian Motion Picture War Services Committee, which worked with
19964-487: The property of the Orly retirement home to store their collection of film prints. They then entrusted the key to the building to Méliès and he became the first conservator of what became the Cinémathèque Française . Although he never was able to make another film after 1912 or stage another theatrical performance after 1923, he continued to draw, write to and advise younger film and theatrical admirers until
20125-568: The real-life coronation of Edward VII . The film was shot prior to the actual event (since he was denied access to the coronation) and was commissioned by Charles Urban, head of the Warwick Trading Company and the Star Films representative in London. The film was ready to be released on the day of the coronation; however, the event was postponed for six weeks due to Edward's health. This allowed Méliès to add actual footage of
20286-538: The rest of his career. These included the Lumière-like documentaries, comedies, historical reconstructions, dramas, magic tricks, and féeries (fairy stories), which became his most well-known genre. In 1897, Méliès was commissioned by the popular singer Paulus to make films of his performances. Because Paulus refused to perform outdoor, some thirty arc and mercury lamps had to be used in Méliès studio, one of
20447-492: The right to edit these films. Pathé also held the deed to both Méliès' home and his Montreuil studio as part of the deal. Méliès immediately began production on more elaborate films, and the two that he produced in 1911 were Baron Munchausen's Dream and The Diabolical Church Window . Despite the extravagance of these féeries that had been extremely popular just a decade before, both films failed financially. In 1912, Méliès continued making ambitious films, most notably with
20608-473: The sale prices of three of Méliès' earlier, popular féeries , Cinderella , Bluebeard and Robinson Crusoe . By the end of 1905, Gaston had cut the prices of all films on the Star Films catalog by 20%, which did improve sales. In 1907, Méliès created three new illusions for the stage and performed them at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, while he continued producing a steady stream of films, including Under
20769-621: The same "fantastic voyage" themes as A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage . Unfortunately, Conquest of the Pole was not profitable, and Pathé decided to exercise its right to edit Méliès's films from this point. One of Méliès' later féeries was Cinderella or the Glass Slipper , a 54-minute retelling of the Cinderella legend, shot with new deep focus lenses, outdoors instead of against theatrical backdrops. Pathé hired Méliès's longtime rival Ferdinand Zecca to trim
20930-418: The second of the three conditions, because his principal clients were owners of fairgrounds and music halls. A fairground trade journal quoted Méliès as saying "I am not a corporation; I am an independent producer." Méliès resumed filmmaking in the autumn of 1909 and produced nine films, including Whimsical Illusions , in which he presents a magical effect on stage. At the same time, Gaston Méliès had moved
21091-536: The second studio set into a theatrical stage and performed over 24 revues there until 1923. During the war, the French Army confiscated over four hundred of Star Films' original prints and melted them down to recover silver and celluloid , the latter of which the army used to make shoe heels. In 1923, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin was torn down to rebuild the Boulevard Haussmann . That same year Pathé
21252-506: The seven superimpositions that he used in The Melomaniac . He finished the year with The Damnation of Faust , based on the Faust legend. The film is loosely based on an opera by Hector Berlioz , but it pays less attention to the story and more to the special effects that represent a tour of hell . These include underground gardens, walls of fire and walls of water. In 1904, he made the sequel Faust and Marguerite . This time,
21413-494: The title La Forteresse . It was seen by over 100,000 people in Quebec over the course of six weeks. The papal encyclical Vigilanti Cura in 1936, changed the Catholic attitude towards movies and the church became a part of Quebec movie production in the 1940s. Most of the nineteen movies, fifteen in French and four in English, produced in Quebec from 1944 to 1953 were made by Renaissance Films or Quebec Productions. Those were
21574-549: The trade union Chambre Syndicale des Editeurs Cinématographiques as a way to defend themselves in foreign markets. Méliès was made the first president of the union, serving until 1912, and the Théâtre Robert-Houdin was the group's headquarters. Around the same time, Méliès used the financial success of his films to expand the Montreuil studio, which allowed him to create even more elaborate sets and additional storage space for his growing archive of props, costumes and other memorabilia. In 1900, Méliès made numerous films, including
21735-545: The western areas. This group, the Bioscope Company of Canada, conducted filming in Quebec to Victoria from 1902 to 1903. The film, Living Canada , was premiered at the Palace Theatre in 1903, with High Commissioner Donald Smith in attendance. A total of thirty-five Living Canada films were released by 1904, and was reedited into Wonders of Canada in 1906. Urban success led to him gaining contracts with
21896-475: Was Evangeline . The Palace was the first theatre to transition to showing sound films when it presented Street Angel on 1 September 1928. There were multiple attempts to create an independent film industry in Canada in the early 20th century. Thirty-six companies meant for film production were created between 1914 and 1922, but the majority of the companies did not produce any films. In 1914, Canadian Animated Weekly by Universal Pictures became one of
22057-509: Was The Impossible Voyage , a film similar to A Trip to the Moon about an expedition around the world, into the oceans and even to the Sun . In the film, Méliès plays Engineer Mabouloff of the Institute of Incoherent Geography, who is similar to the previous Professor Barbenfouillis. Mabouloff leads a group on the trip on the many Automobouloffs, the vehicles that they use of their travels. As
22218-521: Was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards in his work. His most important films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was born 8 December 1861 in Paris , son of Jean-Louis Méliès and his Dutch wife Johannah-Catherine Schuering. His father had moved to Paris in 1843 as a shoemaker and began working at a boot factory, where he met Méliès' mother. Johannah-Catherine's father had been
22379-468: Was edited by his cousin Adolphe Méliès. On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended a special private demonstration of the Lumière brothers ' cinematograph , given for owners of Parisian houses of spectacle. Méliès immediately offered the Lumières 10,000 francs for one of their machines; the Lumières refused, anxious to keep a close control on their invention and to emphasize the scientific nature of
22540-718: Was established in 1917, but did not produce its own films until 1923. S.C. Johnson, who worked in the Ontario Agriculture Department , was its first director. The victory of the United Farmers of Ontario in the 1919 election resulted in Peter Smith reorganized film production under the Amusement Branch with Otter Elliott heading it. He changed the focus of filmmaking from agricultural training towards quality productions. By 1925,
22701-456: Was filmed and was initially meant to be two reels, worth twenty minutes, but grew to five reels as they could not determine what to cut. Irwin met with Harvey Harnick, the NFB's Columbia theatrical distributor, and J.J. Fitzgibbons, the president of Famous Players, and Fitzgibbons told Irwin that he would screen all five reels if the film was completed for a Christmas release. Royal Journey opened in seventeen first-run theatres and over course of
22862-476: Was finally able to take over Star Films and the Montreuil studio. In a rage, Méliès burned all of his film negatives stored at the Montreuil studio, as well as most of the sets and costumes. As a result, many of his films do not exist today. Nonetheless, just over two hundred Méliès films have been preserved, and have been available on DVD since December 2011. Méliès was largely forgotten and financially ruined by December 1925, when he married his long-time mistress,
23023-525: Was given more recognition and in December 1929, a gala retrospective of his work was held at the Salle Pleyel . In his memoirs, Méliès said that at the event he "experienced one of the most brilliant moments of his life." Eventually Georges Méliès was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur , the medal of which was presented to him in October 1931 by Louis Lumière . Lumière himself said that Méliès
23184-479: Was increased to $ 70,000 in 1933. The bureau was reorganized into the National Film Board of Canada in 1941, following John Grierson 's recommendation. Ross McLean was working as the secretary to High Commissioner Vincent Massey when he met Grierson, and asked for Grierson to come to Canada to aide in the governmental film policy. Grierson made a report on the Canadian film industry in 1938, and
23345-592: Was not financially successful as only three of those films made a profit and the organization recovered $ 600,000 of its investments. After 1970 the CFDC focused on investing in smaller budgeted films and ended its work with American theatrical distributors to them hiding profits. Another $ 10 million budget was given to the CFDC in November 1971, and a new investment strategy in which $ 600,000 per year would be invested into productions, with its creative and technical crew being Canadian, budgeted below $ 100,000, and $ 3 million per year on films with guaranteed distribution. It took
23506-532: Was often damaged or otherwise unusable, and Gaston was no longer able to fulfill Star Films' obligation to Thomas Edison's company. By the end of his travels, Gaston Méliès had lost $ 50,000 and had to sell the American branch of Star Films to Vitagraph Studios . Gaston eventually returned to Europe and died in 1915. He and Georges Méliès were not on speaking terms following his return to Europe. When Méliès broke his contract with Pathé in 1913, he had nothing with which to cover his indebtedness to that company. Although
23667-427: Was often screened as a featured attraction even years after its U.S. release in December 1899. Such U.S. filmmakers as Thomas Edison were resentful of the competition from foreign companies and after the success of Cinderella , attempted to block Méliès from screening most films in the U.S.; but they soon discovered the process of creating film dupes (duplicate negatives). Méliès and others then established in 1900
23828-401: Was possible, rather than enhance the overall narrative. Méliès' early films were mostly composed of single in-camera effects, used for the entirety of the film. For example, after experimenting with multiple exposure, Méliès created his film The One-Man Band in which he played seven different characters simultaneously. Méliès began shooting his first films in May 1896, and screening them at
23989-507: Was released in Canada under the name Carry On! and was financially success. Clarke's film was named Carry on, Sergeant! to help raise funds. It received financial backing from influential people, including prime ministers Arthur Meighen and Bennett. The film started production, by the recently created subsidiary Canadian International Films, in 1926, and Bruce Bairnsfather was hired to direct with an expensive contract, but his inexperience with film led to production troubles that increased
24150-567: Was reorganized into the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau on 1 April 1923. Its films were theatrically released in the United States by Bray Productions . The organization's budget stagnated and declined during the Great Depression. The organization was led by Bernard Norrish from 1917 to 1920, Raymond Peck from 1920 to 1927, and Frank Badgley from 1927 to 1941. Badgley stated that
24311-531: Was six minutes long and had a cast of over 35 people, including Bleuette Bernon in the title role. It was also Méliès' first film with multiple scenes, known as tableaux . The film was very successful across Europe and in the United States, playing mostly in fairgrounds and music halls. American film distributors such as Siegmund Lubin were especially in need of new material, both to attract their audience with new films and to counter Edison's growing monopoly . Méliès' films were particularly popular, and Cinderella
24472-438: Was sponsored by Clifford Sifton in 1901. His second tour was the first time that the government was directly involved with film. British and American filmmakers were selected as they could guarantee the distribution of their films unlike Canadian filmmakers. The CPR enlisted Charles Urban and his company , in order to allow the distribution of the films to the United Kingdom, to travel and film Canada to promote settlement in
24633-405: Was still interested in attempting to create a large film studio by 1932, along with Edward Wentworth Beatty and Herbert Samuel Holt , but the recent failure of Canadian International Films and Great Depression led to its not receiving investments. The Canadian film industry would not recover until after World War II . The Exhibits and Publicity Bureau was founded on 19 September 1918, and
24794-540: Was taken over by the Pan American Film Corporation in 1918, but only released one film before closing. Brownridge founded Adanac Producing Company and released the two Canadian National Features films in 1918. Brownridge shifted production towards corporate sponsorships by displaying products in dramatized films. Brownridge sought a sponsorship from the CPR and John Murray Gibbon saw Power and asked Brownridge to make anti-Bolshevik films during
24955-425: Was the "creator of the cinematic spectacle." However, the enormous amount of praise that he was receiving did not help his livelihood or ameliorate his poverty. In a letter written to French filmmaker Eugène Lauste , Méliès wrote that "luckily enough, I am strong and in good health. But it is hard to work 14 hours a day without getting my Sundays or holidays, in an icebox in winter and a furnace in summer." In 1932,
25116-534: Was the first NFB film directed by a French Canadian woman. French-language media, including Le Devoir , criticized the NFB after it removed Roger Blais in 1957. NFB francophone directors Denys Arcand , Gilles Carle , Jacques Godbout , Gilles Groulx , and Clément Perron criticized the organization for its censorship policies, refusal to produce feature films, and its colonial treatment of Quebec. Michel Brault , Carle, Bernard Gosselin , Groulx, and Arthur Lamothe left following reprimands. Guy Roberge became
25277-477: Was the first film historian to demonstrate Méliès's importance to the industry. In 1926, spurred on by Coissac's book, the magazine Ciné-Journal located Méliès, now working at the Gare Montparnasse, and commissioned a memoir from him. By the late 1920s, several journalists had begun to research Méliès and his life's work, creating new interest in him. As his prestige began to grow in the film world, he
25438-416: Was then sent to the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand . In his memoirs, Méliès emphasised his formal, classical education, in contrast to accusations early in his career that most filmmakers had been "illiterates incapable of producing anything artistic." However, he acknowledged that his creative instincts usually outweighed intellectual ones: "The artistic passion was too strong for him, and while he pondered
25599-497: Was unsuccessful, yet Méliès was proud of it throughout his life. Early in 1909, Méliès presided over the "Congrès International des éditeurs de films" in Paris. Under Méliès’ chairmanship, the European congress took place from 2 to 4 February 1909. In his mémoires , Méliès says that this congress was the second one, following the 1908 congress. In 1909, the congress made important decisions regarding film leasing, and adoption of
25760-631: Was very much result from anything he has done". George Patton, the bureau's head, supported the deal as Cranfield and Clarke had no Jews in its company. W.F. Clarke, who was later blamed for the company's financial failure, pushed for Canadian film production and came up with an idea of a film about "a dramatic story written by an eminent authority around the part played by the Canadians in the World War". Clarke incorporated British Empire Films of Canada in June 1927. The film adaption of The Better 'Ole
25921-451: Was written by a task force in 1985, and it stated that foreign domination of film and video distribution, chronic undercapitalization of production companies, and concentration of theatre ownership and distribution and exhibition vertical integration hurt the development of the film industry. They recommended legislation to increase the control of Canadian-owned companies over distribution and Minister of Communications Flora MacDonald proposed
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