Sea Fighting in Greece

Sea Fighting in Greece
File:SeaFightinginGreece.jpg Screenshot from the film
Directed by	Georges Méliès
Produced by	Star Film Company
Distributed by	Star Film Company
Release date	1897 (1897)
Running time	20 meters/65 feet
Country	France
Languages	Silent French intertitles

Sea Fighting in Greece (French: Combat naval en Grèce) is an 1897 French short silent war film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès' Star Film Company and is numbered 110 in its catalogues. The film, one of a series of events related to the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, is set on the gun deck of a man-of-war ship under attack. In reality, there were no naval clashes during the war.

Synopsis

A naval officer calls his sailors to the deck to assemble around the cannon while he scans the horizon, when the ship is suddenly hit and one of the sailors is injured.

Production

The film is notable for the deck's realistic pitch-and-toss rolling motion, achieved using an articulated film set that rocked side-to-side in front of a stationary camera. This scenic special effect, which Méliès recreated soon after in his film Between Calais and Dover using the same moving platform, allowed for a degree of realism highly unusual for the time. Méliès himself appears in the film as the officer. The film was shot outside in the garden of Méliès's property in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, with painted scenery.

The film, long presumed lost, was rediscovered by John Barnes in August 1988 in the BFI National Archive, where it had been catalogued under the wrong title.

External links

• Sea Fighting in Greece at IMDb
• Combat Naval en Grèce short film on Archives