List_of_reconstructed_actualities_by_Georges_Méliès
Between 1897 and 1902, the French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861–1938) made numerous actualités reconstituées ("reconstructed actualities"[2] or "reconstructed newsreels"[3]). Unlike conventional actuality films, which presented real-life events or simple naturalistic scenes filmed in a documentary style, these reconstructed actualities were dramatically staged reenactments of current events, employing miniature models and theatrical techniques. Méliès particularly focused on capturing the spectacular nature of the events he recreated.[3] While little is known of the exact release dates for many of Méliès's films, it appears that the reconstructed actualities were offered for sale soon after the events they portrayed, when the news was still fresh in viewers' minds.[4]
"Behind the theater is life and behind life, the theater. … Why not make reconstructed newsreels like Méliès did? Today we should show Castro and Johnson, played by actors. … People would love all that."
These reconstructed actualities are part of a wider tradition of "faked" news film, a genre very popular in the early years of cinema. Between 1894 and 1900, every major film studio regularly produced reenactments of current events. Some of these films were deliberate hoaxes, intended to be misconstrued as actual footage of the events they portrayed; others were made with no intention to mislead audiences, and were designed simply as illustrations of the events.[5] In the case of Méliès, the reconstructed actualities were deliberately described as reenactments, and were not intended to be misconstrued as real. However, contemporary accounts suggest that some viewers assumed the films were genuine, and a few exhibitors even advertised the films falsely as such.[5] After a sustained period of popularity, the genre fell out of favor in the 1910s, apparently due to growing public distaste for artificiality in film reportage.[6]
Méliès's reconstructed actualities have been described as an early form of docudrama.[7] They can also be compared to the newspaper and magazine engravings of Méliès's time, many of which made a similar attempt to capture the essence of a news event rather than to simulate it realistically.[3]