In 1896, Georges Méliès made her disappear by stopping the crank in The Vanishing Lady: she is the first woman ever conjured away in cinema. Ruined along with the Star Film company, she kept a toy shop where he found her again and married her, thirty years after erasing her from the picture.
The story
Charlotte Faes was born on 20 March 1865 at Vaujours. An actress at the théâtre Robert-Houdin, of which Méliès was the director, she stepped naturally in front of his camera when the conjuror took to filming.
In 1896 she filmed “Le Manoir du diable” and “L'Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert Houdin”. In the second, Méliès makes her vanish by simply stopping the crank: she is the first woman conjured away on film, and it is one of the first trick shots in the history of cinema.
She acted in “Le Voyage dans la Lune” in 1902 and in a long run of Star Film pictures, until Méliès's ruin carried the studio away with it. After that she kept a stall of toys and sweets at the gare Montparnasse.
That is where Méliès found her again. He married her in 1925 — thirty years after making her disappear on screen — and came to keep the stall with her. He died in 1938 and was buried in the Genin family vault, his first wife's.
She outlived him by eighteen years and died at Versailles on 14 October 1956. The stone in Division 64 names her as she wanted to be named: “Mme veuve Méliès, née Charlotte Faes” — the widow Méliès, born Charlotte Faes.
The grave
She and Méliès rest in the same plot, and that plot is neither his nor quite hers: it is the grave of the Genin family, where several women's names precede theirs. Her inscription fits on one line — “Mme Vve MELIES, née Charlotte FAES, 1865-1956” — and puts before the actress the name of the husband she married in 1925. No sculpture concerns her: the bronze bust on the stone, added in 1954, is the film-maker's.
On site, do not miss
On the Genin stone, look for the line “Mme Vve Méliès, née Charlotte Faes”: this is the actress of cinema's first vanishing act.
Visitors' questions
Where is Jehanne d'Alcy's grave?
In Division 64, Avenue Circulaire, second row, in the eastern part of the cemetery. It is not a separate grave: she rests in the plot of the Genin family, her own family, where Georges Méliès was also buried in 1938.
Claude BrossetIs she buried with Georges Méliès?
Yes, in the same grave, that of the Genin family, in Division 64. Her own inscription reads “Mme veuve Méliès, née Charlotte Faes, 1865-1956”; the film-maker's bronze bust stands on the same stone.
Georges MélièsWhat is her most famous role?
The lady in “The Vanishing Lady”, shot in 1896: Méliès made her disappear simply by stopping the camera's crank. She also appeared in “The Haunted Castle” and “A Trip to the Moon”.
Chantal AkermanWhen did she marry Méliès?
In 1925, nearly thirty years after the first film they made together. He had found her again behind the counter of her toy shop at the Gare Montparnasse, where he came to work alongside her.
Sarah BernhardtAudio guide to Père Lachaise: the best unusual guided tour!
Discover the secrets of the most astonishing tombs
the audio guidefrom€6.99