
Jehanne d'Alcy
Acting
Biography
A performer at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin from 1888, when it was re-opened by Georges Méliès, Jehanne d'Alcy (also known as Fanny Manieux) later became Méliès's mistress and appeared in a number of his films, including the first of his risqué productions Après le bal - le tub (1897). Méliès's first wife Eugenie died in May 1913, and in 1925 he married d'Alcy. Her concession of a toy stall at the Gare Montparnasse, Paris, manned by Georges, provided their only income for several years. In 1932 they moved into an apartment at a home for cinema veterans. After Méliès's death, d'Alcy appeared in the poignant framing sequences of Georges Franju's short dramatisation of his life, Le Grand Méliès (1952), with Méliès's son André playing his father. Jehanne d'Alcy died on 14 October 1956 at Versailles, aged ninety-two.
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

Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
The Impossible Voyage

In a medieval castle, a dark magician thought to be Mephistopheles conjures up a series of bizarre creatures and events in order to torment a pair of interloping cavaliers.
Le manoir du diable

A man has a fantastical nightmare involving, among other things, a grinning malevolent moon.
A Nightmare

A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.
Bluebeard

A lost film. A man digging inside an Egyptian tomb chops up a mummy, then resurrects the woman inside it. This film is presumably lost.
Cleopatra's Tomb

A biographical film about cinematic illusionist Georges Méliès featuring Méliès’s widow, Jeanne d’Alcy, as herself, and their son André as his own father.
Le Grand Méliès

An astronomer has a terrifying dream.
The Astronomer's Dream

A man has an encounter with several spooky apparitions in a castle that is evidently owned by the Devil.
Le château hanté

A divinely inspired peasant woman becomes an army captain for France and then is martyred after she is captured.
Joan of Arc

Showing Pygmalion at work in his studio on the statue of Galatea, who, on being completed, comes to life. He attempts to clasp her to his arms, when the bust leaves the body and crossing the room mocks at him standing with the lower portion of her body in his hands. Further startling illusions are seen in this most beautiful picture.
Pygmalion and Galatea
Mephistopheles demands that Faust kill Marguerite.
Faust and Marguerite

A series of fantastical wrestling matches.
The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match

A woman arrives home after the ball. Her servant helps her undress and bathe.
After the Ball

The plot follows King Edward VII and President Armand Fallières dreaming of building a tunnel under the English Channel.
Tunneling the English Channel

St. Anthony is tempted by visions of women, including one that is transformed from the image of Jesus Christ Himself!
The Temptation of St. Anthony

Georges Méliès makes a woman disappear, then reappear.
The Vanishing Lady

Faust and his love Marguerite are sentenced to Hell where they are showed the torture that awaits.
Faust and Marguerite

A devil wearing bat-like wings and brandishing a trident dances around a giant pot, conjuring forth flame from his trident to lit a fire beneath the pot. After the devil works the fire with bellows, an angelic woman emerges from the pot. The devil and the pot vanish as the woman performs a dance, waving about her diaphanous sleeves until she conjures forth another fire, then she rises amongst the smoke into the air.