PREVIEW

Long-lost 'robot' film by pioneering 19th-century auteur Georges Méliès discovered and restored. A lost film by pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès has been discovered in the U.S. and restored. Before it arrived at the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, “Gugusse and the Automaton”, a 45-second motion picture made around 1897, was just reels of rusted film. Some had crumbled entirely, while others were fused together. Carefully separated and examined frame by frame, the degraded nitrate film revealed an unexpected image: a black star painted on a pedestal, and a slapstick battle between a magician and a robot. It soon became clear the librarians were looking at “Gugusse and the Automaton”, a 45-second film made around 1897. The films once belonged to Bill McFarland, who donated the reels after transporting them from his home in Grand Rapids to the Library's conservation centre in Culpeper. The films once belonged to his great-grandfather, William Delisle Frisbee, who travelled from town to town as an early showman. Méliès pioneered effects such as jump cuts, double exposure, and forced perspective. His films - often inspired by the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells - combined fantasy, and science fiction. Gugusse and the Automaton itself is a simple, single-shot production set against a painted backdrop resembling a workshop. In it, Méliès plays a magician who winds up a clown-like automaton, only for it to turn on him. A comic struggle ensues, ending with the magician smashing the shrinking figure into the floor.