Bleuette Bernon
Acting
Biography
Born Léontine Ernestine Gauché, Bleuette Bernon was a French film actress who appeared in five films made by Georges Méliès around the turn of the 20th century. The earliest films, made before 1900, were usually without plot and had a runtime of just a few minutes. However, Méliès evolved the genre of the fictional motion picture, and Bernon became one of the earliest character actors in movies. In 1899, she played the title character in Méliès's Jeanne d'Arc, and Cinderella in Cendrillon. In 1901, she appeared in Barbe-bleue. In 1902 she appeared in a minor role in A Trip to the Moon, which is the best known film of Méliès, as one "lady in the Moon". In 1903 she appeared as Aurora in Le Royaume des fées.
Known For
Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.
A Trip to the Moon
A fairy godmother magically turns Cinderella's rags to a beautiful dress, and a pumpkin into a coach. Cinderella goes to the ball, where she meets the Prince - but will she remember to leave before the magic runs out? Méliès based the art direction on engravings by Gustave Doré. First known example of a fairy-tale adapted to film, and the first film to use dissolves to go from one scene to another.
Cinderella
A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
Joan of Arc
A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.
Bluebeard
There's a chemistry lab, in which one or two people ingest the wrong drug -- apparently -- and have a seriously bad trip. Then there's this wizard in his cave, and a fairy appears -- then there's this massive feast with about a dozen people. Then it ends.
Pharmaceutical Hallucinations
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.
The Kingdom of the Fairies
A woman slips into her bed with the help of her servant. While the film is lost, there is a new digital version based on re-creation from a flipbook produced by Léon Beaulieu around the same time