Martin Scorce’s HUGO is a tribute to film pioneer Georges Melies
Like many people who were charmed by Scorcese’s recent film HUGO, I had little knowledge of early film history or Georges Melies before seeing the movie, so I headed to the internet afterwards to find out a little more about him.
Ben Kingsley (center right, as Georges Melies) confers with director/producer Martin Scorsese (far right) on the set of HUGO, from Paramount Pictures and GK Films. Photo: Jaap Buitendijk.
Although Melies is recognized today as an early film innovator with a fabulous imagination, he fell out of favor during his lifetime and many of his films were melted down or destroyed.
Still from Melies’s THE MAN WITH THE RUBBER HEAD
While reading about Melies, I ran across Wikipedia’s list of Rediscovered Films. Happily a couple of Melies’s films from the 1890s have been rediscovered in this century.
Excerpt from Wikipedia’s List of Rediscovered Films — 1890s
Scrolling down the list, look what film shows up in the 1940’s … Rey Scott’s KUKAN!
Excerpt from Wikipedia’s List of Rediscovered Films — 1940s
And that’s the answer to a film trivia question that might someday be asked on a game show in the far future – HUGO and FINDING KUKAN are both about rediscovering lost films and forgotten filmmakers.
In 1961 the French government issued a postage stamp in honor of Georges Melies’s cinematic contributions.
Maybe someday KUKAN, Rey Scott, and Li Ling-Ai will have a postage stamp dedicated to them too.
