Long before Star Wars, King Kong, or Metropolis there was the greatest and most influential film illusionist of all time: a puckish French magician named Georges Méliès.

Join us for a special celebration of the father of special effects, featuring his greatest epics from the early 1900s. A stage magician turned filmmaker, Georges Méliès produced more than 500 whimsical “trick films,” crafting tales of the fantastic that pushed nearly every technical boundary of the time. His spectacular images remain some of the most iconic in film history, and continue to instill wonder and delight a century later.

This special presentation includes rare tinted and hand-colored film prints accompanied by non-traditional musical selections including world music, avant-garde jazz, and early electronic music. The film The Impossible Voyage (1904) will include a rare live performance of Georges Méliès’ original narration combined with an audio collage of period 78 RPM records (compiled by Robert Millis and Jeffrey Taylor of Climax Golden Twins) played live on real Victrolas.