Georges Melies

Before the turn of the twentieth century, before the nickelodeon, even before the first cinemas, Georges Mlis began making movies. Directing, editing, producing, designing, and starring in over 500 films between 1896 to 1912, Mlis was also the first cinematic auteur. This is the first study of Mlis's films to appear in English in over twenty years and the only book to interpret his work using the tools of modern film analysis. Locates the roots of modern narrative cinema in Mlis's work, identifying techniques of editing and mise-en-scne previously thought to have originated with D. W. Griffith.