Career

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₣ for one of their machines; the Lumières refused, anxious to keep a close control on their invention and to emphasize the scientific nature of the device. (For the same reasons, they refused the Musée Grévin’s 20,000₣ bid and the Folies Bergère’s 50,000₣ 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 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 the Animatograph, modified the machine so that it would serve 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.