The Eruption of Mount Pelee
The Eruption of Mount Pelee | |
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Directed by | Georges Méliès |
Produced by | Georges Méliès |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Country | France |
Language | Silent |
Éruption volcanique à la Martinique, released in the United States as The Eruption of Mount Pelee and in Britain as The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelée and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique, is a 1902 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès.[1] The film is a short reconstruction, using miniature models, of a recent historical event: the eruption on 8 May 1902 of Mount Pelée, which destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique.[2]
Summary
Mount Pelée looms over the town of Saint-Pierre. Fire and smoke rises from the crater; then lava begins pouring down the sides of the mountain. The village is soon engulfed in smoke and flames.
Production
The film is one of the most frequently cited examples
Academic opinion is divided on the exact method Méliès used to create the eruption. The Méliès descendant and film scholar Jacques Malthête hypothesized that a type of flare known as the Feu de Bengale was used (as Méliès did four years later to create an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in The Merry Frolics of Satan); film historians René Jeanne and Charles Ford nominated a flammable combination of cloth, colored water, cinders, and a kind of powdered chalk called Blanc d'Espagne; Méliès's granddaughter, Madeleine Malthête-Méliès, indicated that starch was poured down the model to simulate lava, and that pieces of paper and unseasoned wood were burned to create smoke; and the Méliès expert John Frazer suggested that the model was made of cardboard and paper and that "the eruption [was] created by a combination of flashing lights, powdered chalk, and cinders."[3]
According to the film historian Pierre Lephrohon, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire once asked Méliès himself how he made The Eruption of Mount Pelee. Méliès said simply: "By photographing cinders and chalk." Apollinaire remarked to a friend who was with them: "Monsieur and I have the same occupation, we enchant ordinary materials."[2]
Release and other versions
The Eruption of Mount Pelee was released by Méliès's
The Edison Manufacturing Company version was released in three parts: Mt. Pelee Smoking Before Eruption (St. Pierre, Martinique), Mt. Pelee in Eruption and Destruction of St. Pierre (Martinique), and Burning of St. Pierre (Martinique).[5][6][7] The Edison Company had sent the photographer J. Blair Smith to Martinique to film the aftermath of the accident; meanwhile, the filmmaker Edwin S. Porter stayed at the Edison studio in Orange, New Jersey to recreate the eruption using a studio model. A dozen clips of Smith's real-life footage, and all three of Porter's films simulating different stages of the eruption, were sold by the Edison Company in July 1902; the catalogue encouraged exhibitors to combine the real and faked films to "make a complete show in themselves."[8] According to the film historian Lewis Jacobs, the crew that created the Edison version found their own unique way to simulate the eruption: they exposed a barrel of beer to direct sunlight and waited for it to explode.[2]
The Eruption of Mount Pelee was presumed
References
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7324-3732-3
- ^ ISBN 0-8161-8368-6
- ^ a b c Malthête, Jacques (2003), "Un feu d'artifice improvisé? Les effets pyrotechniques chez Méliès", Mille Huit Cent Quatre-vingt-quinze (in French), 39: 61–72, retrieved 5 December 2014
- ^ Rosen, Miriam (1987), "Méliès, Georges", in Wakeman, John (ed.), World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, p. 755
- ^ Bennett, Carl (14 March 2008), "Mt. Pelee Smoking Before Eruption (St. Pierre, Martinique)", Silent Era, retrieved 5 December 2014
- ^ Bennett, Carl (14 March 2008), "Mt. Pelee in Eruption and Destruction of St. Pierre (Martinique)", Silent Era, retrieved 5 December 2014
- ^ Bennett, Carl (14 March 2008), "Burning of St. Pierre (Martinique)", Silent Era, retrieved 5 December 2014
- ISBN 0520060806, retrieved 5 December 2014
- OCLC 10506429
- Vilaweb(in Catalan), 27 September 2007, retrieved 5 December 2014