The descendants of Méliès will open with a cinema-concert the 4th Peripheral Film Festival
Marie-Hélène Lehérissey-Méliès, great granddaughter of Georges Méliès will narrate the film adventures created by his popular ancestor, whereas his son Lawrence Lehérissey, great great-grandson of the mythical magician of cinema, takes charge of the piano accompaniment.
The opening night of the 4th Peripheral Film Festival brings to A Coruña the descendants of the father of the cinematographic fiction: Georges Méliès (1861 – 1938). This French visionary character of the beginning of the 19th century is one of the most exciting figures in the history of the cinema. King of make-up and costume, magician and prestidigitator, he played with the fascination that exerts the incomprehensible on the public. Characters that grow or reduce disappear and metamorphose or even multiply. One-man-band, Méliès took charge of all the tasks regarding filmmaking: producer, screenwriter, director, and distributor. He built; painted and decorated his film sets and even worked as an actor in most of his movies. Between the years 1896 and 1912 Méliès produced, directed and distributed more than 520 films. He was an innovative of the cinema fields like the narrative development, the application of new technical resources, the manipulation of photography, and the use of special effects in filmmaking. Besides, he was one of the first professionals to master the art of set designing and its possibilities to create illusions, by means of visual effects, enhancements and color. The philosopher Edgar Morin, founder of the Complex Thought, over Méliès: “A magician who put the cinematograph into a hat and took out Cinema”.
The cinema-concert, that will take place at Teatro Colón (A Coruña) the next 5th of June at 20.30 hours, presents an exclusive program that includes a carefully selected session of films produced and directed by Méliès. We will travel in time to the Paris of the beginning of the 20th century to attend to what promises to be an original cinematograph session. The show is conducted by a “bonimenteuse” on the way that the original storytellers or sellers of illusions of the period did. This is the part of Marie-Hélène Lehérissey-Méliès, great granddaughter of Georges Méliès, third generation of taleteller in the family. During the show she reads the original expressions written by his great-grandfather. Marie-Hélène is member of the technical direction of TF1 (Télévision Française Une), and she’s a film editor. Simultaneously, she is in charge of the maintenance of the film collection at “Les Amis de Georges Méliès – Cinémathèque Méliès”, group founded in 1961 whose work focuses in searching, restoring and preserving the work of this big magician of the early cinema.
The Méliès session also includes live music by Lawrence Lehérissey. The great great-grandson of Méliès accompanies on the piano the images filmed by his ancestor contributing to generate a context and adding liveliness to the stories. Lawrence is a piano player and composer with classical and jazz music training. He’s being accompanying the cinema-concerts for years and he is the composer of the original music of the show and the score of the DVD Méliès, edited in 2008 by Studio Canal. Lawrence is co-founder of the band Improbable and member of Les portugaises ensablées.
With the collaboration of the Institut Français of Bilbao.
