Retired professor Bill McFarland has rediscovered a lost work of French cinema pioneer, a 45-second film called “Gugusse et l’automate” (1897). After restoration, it is now accessible on the Library of Congress website.
The old wooden chest had been in the family for a century, moved from the attic to the barn, then from the barn to the garage. No one knew it contained a treasure of French cinema.
No one, until Bill McFarland, a retired professor and great-grandson of a rural Pennsylvania projectionist, discovered old film reels that “seemed too precious to be thrown away,” he said. However, the septuagenarian “had no idea what they represented” or how to view them. He first tried to sell them to an antique dealer, who declined after learning that nitrate reels were highly flammable and could explode.
Last summer, Bill McFarland traveled from his home in Michigan to the Library of Congress’ National Audiovisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia. Among the ten reels was a lost film by Georges Méliès, titled “Gugusse et l’automate.”
The film was made in 1897, two years after the Lumière brothers organized the first public film screening in Paris, attended by Georges Méliès, who later became known for his experimentation with early special effects in cinema.
Georges Méliès, portrayed in the film as a magician operating an automaton, gradually grows larger before striking the magician with a stick on the head. The magician retaliates by hitting the automaton with a hammer, causing it to shrink and disappear completely through a montage process.
Georges Méliès’ films were victims of counterfeiting, making him “one of the first filmmakers confronted with piracy,” according to George Willeman. Although “Gugusse et l’automate” is listed in the illusionist’s catalog, it had never been seen until Bill McFarland deposited his reels in Culpeper last September.
A century later, Library of Congress archivists experienced the same excitement towards the film reels. They preserved the precious reels in a cold room designed to prevent any nitrate-induced fires. The film, “Gugusse et l’automate,” is now a piece of cinema history, accessible on the Library of Congress website.
