Reddit mentions of Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema 1896-1913

Here is a DVD collection of 173 of them if you're really interested in digging into his work. I've always thought about buying it but haven't been able to get myself to shell out the cash.

My hubby is a lover of obscure art, film, games, and more. His birthday is around the corner, and although we do not have a shared interest in these things, I have in the past been able to buy him some wonderful gifts by finding people like him on reddit and other online sites and hearing from people who share his passions about prized possessions and great finds. I'm hoping this community might be able to help me in that way.

To give an idea of his tastes, I will list some of the gifts I have been able to give him in the past which are now well-loved:

• Melies Box Set
  
  
• Norman McLaren Boxed Set
  
  
• The Man Who Planted Trees - Frédéric Back
  
  
• Winsor McCay - The Master Edition
  
  
• La Linea - Osvaldo Cavandoli
  
  
• Lynd Ward - Six Novels in Woodcuts
  
  
• Ulrich Merkl's republication of Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by Winsor McKay <-- Prized possession.
  
  He also lives the silent comedy era, and has boxed sets of Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, Arbuckle, Bowers, and probably some others I'm not thinking of.
  
  So, chime in if you think you have similar tastes. What are your personal prized possessions? What might fit into his collection that is missing?

All of Georges Melies' films are great! If you want to watch A Trip to the Moon (the film that was featured in Hugo), you can buy the Blu-Ray/DVD on Amazon (It seems expensive, but you're basically buying history, so it's worth it). But I would recommend also getting the Geogres Melies: First Wizard of Cinema Collection, and in addition Melies Encore (movies that were discovered after the release of the first collection).

I, too, am fascinated by this era.

There are already a lot of great book recommendations in this thread.

As to finding films, there are a number of collections on DVD.

Landmarks of Early Film - this has some Lumiere films and a number of important early silent pictures. (This is actually the first volume of The Movies Begin, sold separately)

The Movies Begin (Kino) - A larger set of early films.

Edison - A pretty comprehensive and gorgeous set of early Edison films, plus many supplemental features

Georges Melies: First Wizard of Cinema - Another pretty comprehensive set. For my taste, this might be overkill on Meies (he's also the subject of vol. 2 of The Movies Begin)


There are also early sets from Gaumont studios, DW Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Black Film Makers, Women Film Makers, Slapstick, etc. Check out Kino Lorber and Flicker Alley for a lot of early titles (though usually cheaper via Amazon). Flicker alley has some great stuff - particularly the early Chaplin films. The Criterion Collection also has a number of silent classics (and many of the later Chaplin features in superior editions)

There are a number of sets like Saved From The Flames, Treasures from American Film Archives (several volumes), etc. that collect many early films (and some not so early).

I can also highly recommend the set Unseen Cinema (now sadly out of print - try Ebay) that has a lot of early to 1940's films well worth seeing. It claims to be "avant-garde" films, but to my eyes that's true of only a handful of the titles.

That ought to get you started, at least!

Thanks for the referral. Upon doing some searching, it looks like a good source for a lot of them (but not all) are these two DVDs:

• https://www.kinolorber.com/film/edisontheinventionofthemovies
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Georges-Melies-Wizard-Cinema-1896-1913/dp/B0013K8J90

Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema 1896-1913 - Box Set

Edison - The Invention of the Movies: 1891-1918 - Box Set

The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894-1913 - Box Set

The Magic of Méliès