Georges Méliès and Abel Gance

Georges Méliès was born in Paris in 1861. At a very young age he showed interest in the arts. He was a magician and in 1888 he bought the Theatre Robert Houdin in France. With that he worked as a showman doing magic and illusions. Méliès interest in film came after seeing the Lumiere brothers debut their cinematographe. Méliès is very important in film history because he is the creator of the film narrative and in a way developed special effects. The effects he first introduced were the split screen, double exposure, and dissolve. Méliès' most famous film was "A Trip to the Moon" which is known as the first science fiction movie. Méliès was also the first to make a film in color. 

Abel Gance was born in France in 1889. His parents urged him to have a career as a lawyer but from an early age much like Méliès was attracted to the arts. He first appeared on stage at the age of 19 and went to film in 1909. Gance formed his own production company in 1911 which is the year he also made his first film. He gained recognition with his film J'Accuse which was an anti-war film which featured battles from the end of WWI. Abel Gance's most famous film is Napoleon(1927). Napoleon was one of his most controversial film. It incorporated every film technique that was known and even some that were brand new. He explored panoramic views in Napoleon where scenes in the film tripled in size and using widescreen. Although Napoleon was such an epic film due to its length being 6 hours it was a box office disaster.