In one of his "magical" films

FILMMAKER GEORGE MELIES

Georges Melies, a professional magician
by training, first saw the new "moving pictures" in 1895. One year later, Melies was filming
and projecting his own creations. By accident,
he discovered that he could use stop-motion photography to render trick visual effects. Melies was also the first to use techniques such as the fade-in, the fade-out, and the dissolve
to create the first real narrative cinema.
He made more than 500 films. His most famous surviving work is A Voyage to the Moon (1902).

A Voyage to the Moon

Trained in classic eighteenth century theater, Melies conceived all of his films in terms
of fully played-out scenes. Sadly, unable to keep up with the changing industry, his studio failed and he ended in poverty. and yet his films became monumental stepping stones for great auteurs
such as D.W. Griffith and later Cecil B. deMille.

Thank you, God, for the zany imagination
and inventive films of George Melies!
His fantastic scenarios, buxom zaftig chorines, campy actors, crazy comics and creative cameramen opened up a world of magic for early movie-goers.

Although most of his work, filmed on flammable celluloid given occasionally to self-combustion, are now lost, so that very few remnants
of his creativity exist, his oeuvre remains
in Your Divine Memory.

Thank You for the talents and imagination
which You bestow on all filmmakers, and I pray
that they use their gifts to celebrate
the goodness of life and not contribute
to the degrading vulgarity, sensuality
and sinfulness which characterizes much cinema
and contemporary art art in general.

I pray that films will inspire young audiences and stimulate them toward vigorous, productive, generous, charitable and rewarding lives.

Please Holy Spirit, guide all the workers
in the influential cinema and television industries, whose work has such widespread, deep and emotional effect on all who see it.

All this I pray, dear God,

Amen

 

 

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