Velle, Gaston

(1872-1948)

   Director. Like his contemporary and rival Georges Méliès, Gaston Velle began his career as a magician. He was hired on by Pathé in 1903 to make trick films or trucs to rival those of Méliès. Velle did not disappoint. He was able not only to make a good many well-received trick films, but also féeries, or fantasy films, the other genre for which Méliès was well known. During his initial period at Pathé from 1904 to 1907 he established a solid reputation in the two genres whether working alone or collaborating with the Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomon, also brought on to Pathé in an effort to rival Méliès.

   In 1907, Velle went to Italy to become head of production for Cinca, the Italian film studio. He remained there until 1909 at which time Pathé lured him back by making him head of production for féeries. Velle remained at Pathé until 1911 or 1912, at which time no more films bearing his signature were made.

   With respect to his films, Velle was considered a specialist in those two genres he helped pioneer, that is, the truc and the féerie. While his truc films were fairly popular and quite well done for the time, they lacked the sophistication of Méliès's films and were often centered on a single trick or effect. Among the best-known of these are Le Chapeau magique (1904), Métamorphose du papillon (1904), La Valise de Barnum (1904), Les Cartes lumineuses (1905), and La Fée aux fleurs (1905). Les Invisibles (1906), which is the first "invisible man" film and which helped establish this subgenre, is considered a classic.

   Velle's féeries are probably the most enduring of the films he produced. He often collaborated with other Pathé filmmakers, such as Ferdinand Zecca or de Chomon in making féeries, and the films these collaborations produced are legendary. Films like La Poule aux oeufs d'or (1905), Rêve à la lune (1905), and L'Écrin du Radjah (1906) are silent-film classics and are still shown today. Little is known about Velle's life outside of his work.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins