Georges Méliès Cine-Concert at the Music Box on Saturday, October 27
Recently celebrated in Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning adventure Hugo, French filmmakerGeorge Méliès is considered the father of cinematic special effects. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth, Méliès’ family has created a unique “cine-concert” that’s touring the world. The tour comes to Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, on Saturday, October 27, 12:15 p.m.
In collaboration with Alliance Française de Chicago, Music Box Theatre presents some 15 rarely seen short films with live musical and narrative accompaniment. Méliès’ great-great-grandson Lawrence Lehérissey-Méliès accompanies the silent films on piano while great-granddaughter Marie-Hélène Lehérissey-Mélièsprovides French-language narration. Chicago actress Barbara Robertson provides the English narration.
The cine-concert presents an exclusive program of films by Georges Méliès, accompanied, as in the 1900s, by a pianist and a narrator. The original reels were located, restored, preserved and edited thanks to the work of the partner association, The Friends of Georges Méliès. This show received the special Prize of the City of Vincennes 2010 during the International Cinema Meetings.
George Méliès Cine-Concert
Saturday, October 27, 2012, 12:15pm
The Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue
$15; $5 for children 12 and under. Family package (max. 4) $40.
The program features some of the Magicien de Montreuil’s more rarely seen short films, including:
v The Man with the Rubber Head (L’homme à la tête en caoutchouc). A scientist removes his own head and makes it larger and smaller.
v Fairyland: A Kingdom of Fairies (Au royaume des fées). A princess is kidnapped by a witch and taken to a different world.
v Bluebeard (Barbe-Bleue). A curious woman explores a forbidden room.
v An Extraordinary Dislocation (Dislocation mystérieuse). Several body parts of a dancing clown float away from his body and come back again.
v One Man Orchestra (L’homme orchestre). A man multiplies himself to create an orchestra.
v A Turn of the Century Illusionist (L’impressionniste fin de siècle). A man does magic.
v The Brahmin and the Butterfly (La chrysalide et le papillon). A Brahmin meets a butterfly and then turns into a caterpillar.
v The Fairy Carabosse [The Witch] (La fée Carabosse). A penniless troubador consults the Fairy Carabosse about his future.
v The Temptation of Saint Anthony (La tentation de saint antoine). A man is tempted by several ladies.
v The Cake-Walk Infernal (Le cake-walk infernal). Pluto visits Earth and is struck by the dancing, which he brings back home with him.
v The Black Imp (Le diable noir). An imp causes mischief at a hotel.
v The Music Lover (Le mélomane). The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
v The Wonderful Living Fan (Le merveilleux éventail vivant). The king of France receives a marvelous fan that comes to life.
v The Coronation of Edward VII (Le sacre d’Edouard VII). A re-enactment of the coronation of Britain’s King Edward VII.
v The Living Playing Cards (Les cartes vivantes). A magician’s cards come alive.
This tour is organized by the Délégation Générale des Alliances Françaises-USA
Georges Méliès was one of the most amazing figures in cinema. From 1896 to 1913, he directed, distributed, performed and produced 520 films. This masterful craftsman deserves credit for conceiving film as an original performance, recreating newsreels, advertising films, extravaganzas in color and science fiction. One hundred years later, his films are still relevant today.
Marie-Hélène Lehérissey, Georges Méliès’ great-granddaughter, worked as a film editor before joining the television channel TF1. She also takes care of the film collection of the Friends of Georges Méliès Association – Méliès Film Archive. In addition, she offers “cinematographic performances” in the family tradition and memory with films rediscovered from her great-grandfather. Marie-Hélène, full of verve and humor, is the third generation of narrator-presenters in the family.
An alumnus of the Conservatory, pianist, composer and improviser, Lawrence Lehérissey has been a professional musician since age 18. He has made world tours playing on frames of the films of Georges Méliès, his great-great-grandfather. He is first and foremost interested in working on the evocative and illustrative aspect of sound. As pianist, he improvises on each film, emphasizing Méliès’ film frames and the text of the narrator.
Barbara E. Robertson most recently appeared at the Goodman in Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real in a re-imagined adaptation by Calixto Bieito and Marc Rosich. Robertson received a Joseph Jefferson Award in 20122 for her masterful portrayal of Alice Conroy in the world premiere of Keith Huff’s The Detective’s Wife at Writers’ Theatre. This year, she could also be seen in the Chicago productions of Love, Loss and What I Wore and Workingat the Broadway Playhouse, as well as in Wicked’s National Tour as Madame Morrible. Other credits include:Yeast Nation (American Theatre Company); Pursued By Happiness (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Mary Stuart, La Bete, Tartuffe, The House Of Blue Leaves (Court Theatre); Grand Hotel (Drury Lane Water Tower); Hamlet, Kabuki Lady Macbeth, A Little Night Music, A Winter’s Tale (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre);The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?, House And Garden, Pal Joey, Black Snow (Goodman Theatre); Grand Hotel (Drury Lane Water Tower); Emma’s Child (Victory Gardens Theatre); Detachments (Center Theater); Kabuki Medea (Wisdom Bridge And Kennedy Center); Chicago (Marriott Theatre); Angels in America I & II (National Tour). For her work, she has received more than twenty awards and nominations, including Joseph Jefferson, Helen Hayes, Cal-Alpert, Sarah Siddons and After Dark. Her film credits include Robert Altman’s The Company and David Lynch’s A Straight Story and the soon to be released, LOL. Barbara is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, AFTRA/SAG and a teacher at Columbia College Chicago.