• Special Exclusive US Screening •
In partnership with La Cinémathèque Française
These films have received support from the CNC
for the digitization of cinematographic works of heritage.
The hand-painted films of the Lumière Production are extremely rare;
approximatively fifteen have been recently restored by the Cinémathèque Française.
Presentation by and discussion with Laurent Mannoni, author & director of Cultural Heritage and Conservation of Cinematographic Technologies at the Cinémathèque Française. Narration by Todd Schall-Vess and musical arrangement and performance by organist Bob Gulledge on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Saturday, April 2 – 2:50 p.m. • 20 min • All Audiences • In French with English subtitles
Restored rare films spectacularly screened with narration and music as only the Byrd Theatre can do it!
• Execution of Joan of Arc (1898 – 2 min)
Execution of Joan of Arc, Lumière Production No. 964, director Gaston Breteau, Paris, filmed in September 1898, 20 meters.
Director • Gaston Breteau
Producer • Lumière Production No. 964
4K digital restoration completed in 2015 by the Cinémathèque Française and the Institut Lumière, from a nitrate 35mm print tinted and hand-painted, with Lumière perforations, part of the collection of Olivier Auboin-Vermorel archived at the Cinémathèque Française.
• Joan of Arc (1900 – 12 min)
Joan of Arc, Cinematographic Epic in 12 tableaux by Georges Méliès, Méliès Catalog n° 264-275, hand-painted film, Montreuil, 1900, 250 meters. In the Spring of 1900, Georges Méliès staged Joan of Arc. It is his second film à tableaux after Cinderella (1899), and his first to exceed 200 meters; it encountered a great success. The two back stage areas just added to the Méliès’ Montreuil glass studio allowed for the troupe of the “Triumphal March through Orléans” (tableau 6) to pass several times in front of the camera exiting from the left wing and reentering through the right after getting around the studio from the north. It thus gives the impression that “Joan of Arc uses […] close to five hundred characters” as it has been pointed out by Méliès himself in a contemporary text.
Director • Georges Méliès
Producer • Catalogue Méliès n° 264-275
4K digital restoration completed in 2016 from a nitrate hand-painted copy part of the collection of Madeleine Malthête-Méliès, with the generous contribution of the Filmoteca Cataluyna.
• The Wonderful Living Fan (1904 – 5 min 23)
The Wonderful Living Fan, by Georges Méliès, Montreuil, 1904, hand-painted film, Méliès Production n° 581-584, 90 meters. On the stage of his Montreuil studio, Méliès uses the cinematograph to renew the art of prestidigitation.
Director • Georges Méliès
Producer • Catalogue Méliès n° 581-584
Actor • Georges Méliès
4K digital restoration completed in 2013 from a nitrate copy part of the collection of Madeleine Malthête-Méliès.
Credits : DR