The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelee and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique
About The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelee and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique
A tabletop model shows Mount Pelée over the town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique. The mountain erupts. Smoke, cinders, and a flow come down on the model town. The French title is Éruption volcanique à la Martinique. The picture reconstructs the eruption of 8 May 1902, which destroyed Saint-Pierre.
Cast & crew
More about The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelee and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique
Georges Méliès wrote, directed, photographed, and produced the one-shot miniature. Star Film numbered it 397. In the United States it was sold as The Eruption of Mount Pelee. The British title is the one used here. It runs 2 minutes and was made in May 1902, the same month as the eruption. Méliès later said he did it "by photographing cinders and chalk." Scholars have also proposed Bengal fire, starch, paper, and unseasoned wood. Ferdinand Zecca and the Edison company each made their own miniature Pelée films that year.
Themes
Background
On 8 May 1902 Mount Pelée destroyed Saint-Pierre. Méliès, Zecca, and Edison each put a miniature of that eruption on the market within the year.
Making
Méliès did not go to Martinique. The town and the volcano are miniatures on a table, filmed in May 1902 while the news was still new.
Look
Méliès photographed a tabletop model. He said the eruption was cinders and chalk.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The British catalogue title names both the mountain and the destruction of St. Pierre.
- Zecca's Pathé version, Catastrophe de la Martinique, catalogue 544, used four stagehands: one burning sulfur, one pouring smoke, one throwing sawdust, one agitating a miniature sea.
- Méliès told Guillaume Apollinaire the method was cinders and chalk. Apollinaire answered that they had the same job: enchanting ordinary materials.
- The models are described as a storybook illustration rather than a newsreel.
- A Wikimedia copy uses the French title.
Scenes
- The model of Pelée lets go over the model of Saint-Pierre.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Eruption volcanique à la Martinique - Méliès - 1902.webm)
Quotes
By photographing cinders and chalk.
