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Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library Recommendation (blogs.loc.gov)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/movies@piefed.social
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Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's "Gugusse and the Automaton,” the first appearance of a robot on screen, has long been sought after by sci-fi fans and cinemaphiles. No one had seen it in more than a century when Library staff carefully unwound it. You can see it now in this post and on the Library's National Screening Room.

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[–] [S] 14 points 8 months ago (1 child)

The whole movie is included in the article and is under a minute. Worth a viewing, imo.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Definitely worth a view, it has some nice special effects for its time. It's always a shame that the accompanying music for most old silent films is lost, although in a lot of cases there wasn't really any and it was made up at the theatre each time.

    Edit: For those who don't want to go on US government websites Wikipedia has a copy

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gugusse_et_l%27Automate_-_1897.webm

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    • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Ok. I have seen better movies but the plot is on par with many modern Hollywood flicks.

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    [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Thanks for this. Awesome find. I really enjoyed the fictional film Hugo (2011) which featured this "Automaton".

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    3 comments in c/movies@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Video is in the article and they did some funky techniques too. I don't think of automatons as robots, that's like calling a watch a robot. Technically correct?

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    [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    I thought the film was a sword for a few seconds.

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    [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    The ending was really cute

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    3 comments in c/movies@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Wow 26 years before robot was even a word!

    The term robot came from the Czech language in 1923. The word was coined by Czech author Karel Capek, first used in his play (English translated name) "R.U.R."[7][8][9] The term comes from the Czech word robotnik ('forced worker'), from robota 'forced labor, compulsory service, drudgery,' from robotiti 'to work, drudge', from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota (работа) 'servitude,' from rabu 'slave'. From Old Slavic *orbu-, from PIE *orbh- 'pass from one status to another'.[10]

    source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

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    • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Looks like 35mm? Didn't know 35mm was THAT old

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