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Rediscovering Georges Méliès

The movie special effects we take for granted today had their origins with a wildly inventive filmmaker, magician and visionary around the dawn of the 20th century. The director of more than 500 fanciful films, Méliès didn’t push the envelope on movie magic; he invented it. Thanks to Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s new and widely hailed 3-D family film, children of all ages are being awakened to the work of a true pioneer. Susan King of the Los Angeles Times reports. See Movies

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Image from A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) (1902) by Georges Méliès. Scope of copyright (author’s life plus 70 years) expired in 2008; image is now in the public domain in the United States