Georges Méliès, a magician whose fateful encounter with the cinematograph in 1895 resulted in an expansion of the creative possibilities of the new technological medium, is being remembered in a cine-concert at the Manoel Theatre next month

Often referred to as a cinemagician because of his own background – his public life started on stage as a magician – and mostly due to his contribution to early cinema towards the end of the 19th century, Georges Méliès will be remembered, on the 150th year of his birth at the Manoel Theatre, through the screening of a potpourri of his best silent movies this autumn.

In the wake of the Lumière brothers’ invention of the cinema Méliès was innovative in introducing special effects becoming one of the first film-makers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography and dissolves. His narrative and technical developments contributed to the cinema’s first steps in bringing reality to the screen using an array of effects that made the big screen the entertainment it has now become.

Born in Paris on December 8, 1861, he was excitedly active as film-maker, illusionist and toymaker between 1896 and the break of World War I. His rich contribution to the cinema includes the production of 520 films which he also distributed. Their duration ranged from one to 40 minutes. Méliès appeared in each one of them. Impressed by Lumière’s pioneer camera, he was the first to operate his to tell a story against a theatrical backdrop, similar to what he was used to do on stage. He invented many celluloid tricks opening the way to modern special effects. Méliès lived to the age of 76, dying in Paris in 1938. A conjuror that put the motion-picture projector in a hat and brought out the cinema, observes French philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin.

Thanks to the restoration of the original reels by the Friends of Georges Méliès, the Manoel Theatre evening on November 9 will re-enact a charming original cinema screening in an innovative and exclusive cineconcert, accompanied, as at the turn of the century, by a pianist and a bonimenteur relating the story in French and English with the participation of the direct descendants of Méliès. The evening is being presented by the French Embassy and the Alliance Française Malte Mediterranée.

Some of the titles on show include Barbe-Bleue, 1901, wherein Blue Beard is about to marry his eighth wife, enticing her with a casket of jewels, Voyage dans la lune,1902, considered the screen’s first fiction and the first film to be recognised by Unesco’s human heritage and The Coronation of King Edward VII of England, 1902, which was daringly shown in London on the same coronation day as if in live transmission, obviously all made up in advance in Paris! King Edward VII was so impressed with this feat that he felt the film’s fictional version depicted the coronation even better than the actual one which had to be shorter due to his feeling sick. Other entertaining titles include the 1902 work of art The Man with the Rubber Head, using zoom filming when the zoom effect was not yet invented and The Kingdom of the Fairies, a 1903 forerunner of later Disney fantasies.

On November 8, Marie-Helen Lehérissey, great-granddaughter of Méliès, will recount anecdotes and personal memories of her ancestor at the Sala Isouard at 6.30 p.m.

An English presentation regarding Méliès’ place in cinema history by Tony Cassar Darien, arts commentator, will precede the French presentation.

The evening will wind up with a vin d’honneur.