Lost Georges Méliès Film Discovered in US Attic
A lost 1897 silent film by French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, titled 'Gugusse and the Automaton,' has been recovered from a wooden trunk in a Michigan attic. The reel was part of a collection donated to the US Library of Congress by Bill McFarland, whose great-grandfather, William DeLyle Frisbee, was a rural Pennsylvania showman who screened silent movies in the early 20th century. McFarland had kept the combustible nitrate films for decades before experts at the Library of Congress identified the rare find spliced within another reel. The 45-second comedy features Méliès as a magician battling an automaton, showcasing his early experimentation with special effects and jump cuts. This discovery is significant because Méliès destroyed many of his original negatives, and much of his work was lost or melted down during World War I. The recovered print is believed to be a third-generation copy, preserved due to early film piracy. The find not only restores a piece of cinematic history but also sheds light on the itinerant exhibitors who helped popularize early cinema in America.
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Lost Georges Méliès Film Discovered in US Attic
A lost 1897 silent film by French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès, titled 'Gugusse and the Automaton,' has been recovered from a wooden trunk in a Michigan attic. The reel was part of a collection donated to the US Library of Congress by Bill McFarland, whose great-grandfather, William DeLyle Frisbee, was a rural Pennsylvania showman who screened silent movies in the early 20th century. McFarland had kept the combustible nitrate films for decades before experts at the Library of Congress identified the rare find spliced within another reel. The 45-second comedy features Méliès as a magician battling an automaton, showcasing his early experimentation with special effects and jump cuts. This discovery is significant because Méliès destroyed many of his original negatives, and much of his work was lost or melted down during World War I. The recovered print is believed to be a third-generation copy, preserved due to early film piracy. The find not only restores a piece of cinematic history but also sheds light on the itinerant exhibitors who helped popularize early cinema in America.
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