The Spider and the Butterfly (1909)

★★★★★ · Georges Méliès · micah6vs8 · 2011-11-14

Georges Méliès was a groundbreaking director who began his career in 1896 (sadly some of his films, especially the early ones, are lost). His innovations were many and deserve your attention if so inclined. This snippet from the Le Papillon fantastique (The Fantastic Ballet) marks another innovation as he begins to use the film making process to manipulate the viewers sense of reality. I have to admit, I like the color. And that is one dead Shelob!

★★★★★ · Another Melies Masterpiece · Stan187jones · 2016-07-20

Melies` mastery of the embryonic art of the cinema was truly astounding. As well as the panoply of transformations, disappearances and spatial discontinuities that he archly teased spectators with(to their delight and amazement), we have in this fragment an exmple of the hand painted films that Melies produced. Whole teams of, mainly female, artists painstakingly coloured these movies and what an absolute delight to us cineastes, film historians and film buffs they are. Cracking stuff!