FROM THE DRAWING TO THE FILM A short history of the drawing精选.pdfVIP

CLOSE-UP ON A DRAWING BY GEORGES MÉLIÈS FOR THE MAN WITH THE RUBBER HEAD FROM THE DRAWING TO THE FILM A short history of the drawing Presentation of the drawing: The drawing done by Georges Méliès for the preparation of The Man with the Rubber 1 Head dates from 1901, the year of the shooting of this trick film. Jacques Malthête , Méliès great-grandson, describes it as follows: Chemistry laboratory, at the centre of which is an enormous bearded head on a table, connected, on the right, to a bellows activated by a bearded man.2 This set draft with characters is drawn in ink and coloured pencil, the pencils forging an undeniable sympathy between the drawing and the viewer. The technique used confirms that this is not a drawing that Méliès might have executed in the 1930s at the request of Henri Langlois, co-founder of the Cinémathèque française. In fact, for that commission, Méliès used only ink and signed in capital letters. This preparatory document was done on the back of a sheet of headed notepaper from Méliès Manufacture de films pour cinématographes. As often, he used all types of media to execute his numerous drawings with a nimble hand. The black star, symbol of his brand, appears above Méliès head when the drawing is held up to the light. On the side, one also notices a Star Film in relief, the paper marked by the dry stamp. The restoration of the drawing The drawing, initially glued to a larger-sized piece of cardboard, was restored in 2002. Steamed off the cardboard, it was lined with Japanese vellum. The document has returned to its original format: 19.7 x 26.8 cm. Traces of glue remain on the right edge of the drawing. After dusting and flattening the paper, it was agreed with the resto