La lune à un mètre

An astronomer (dressed like a wizard) is visited in his observatory by various imps and fairies, and eventually a giant, eye-rolling anthropomorphic moon that eats his telescope, dissolves his umbrella, delivers a couple of frolicking moon-children, and eventually eats the old fellow himself. The entire phantasmagoric night turns out to be a dream (hence the original title ('The Astronomer's Dream'), which was more accurate than the deceptive American release "A Trip to the Moon"). The film is a wonderful showcase for Méliès' early experiments in 'trick photography' and includes a number of well done (for the era) substitution splices as the fanciful characters appear and disappear, and a clever animation scene in where images on the astronomer's black-board come to life. A clever and imaginative fantasy film from the early days of cinematography.

Fantastic short film from pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès. A great companion piece to his later classic, A Trip to the Moon (1902). That name was also given to this one when released in the US. The original (and more fitting) name is The Astronomer's Dream. The story to this is an astronomer who looks like Merlin is visited by a woman and a demon and has dreams about the moon. The special effects and sets are really cool, especially when you consider this film's age. Méliès was ahead of his time in many ways. Definitely worth a look for anyone into film history or silent shorts or anyone with a few minutes to spare. I can't imagine anyone seeing this and regretting it. Well, a-holes maybe.

'The Astronomer's Dream (1898)' depicts a wacky nightmare than an astronomer has while gazing up at the moon. It involves devilish creatures, heavenly women and grotesque celestial bodies. It's explicitly framed as a dream (primarily via the title), so the piece doesn't have to make a lot of sense. That's good, because it doesn't. It operates on the sort of dream logic that sees ordinary activities morph into battles against otherworldly beings, sees regular objects take on a life of their own and pits a hopelessly logical protagonist against a hopelessly illogical situation. Making ample use of early special effects (mostly those achieved with a well-timed cut), the flick wonderfully achieves its goal of presenting a waking dream to its audience. It's short, sweet and visually impressive. It's still really good considering it came out 100 years before I was even born. 7/10.

I can't believe that no one else has commented on this yet. This amazing film was one of the first "story" films, with sets like a play. It is a wonderment and leaves so much inspiration for the imagination. It is not in popular circulation, but perhaps it should be. If you can get a chance to watch this one do at all costs. If you can't find it then just think of the Tonight Tonight video by the Smashing Pumpkins. It's about the same except they are separated by about one-hundred years and by a whole barrage of special effects. All in all they are both wonderful and interesting to look at.

After I watched "La lune à un mètre", I read the summary for this short film on IMDB...and I must say that it explained a lot of what I just saw! Yes, the film is quite confusing and exactly WHAT is happening and WHY...well, they seem a bit illusive. Now none of this is to say this is a bad film. After all, it was made by the French master, Georges Méliès, and you know this means lots of trick photography and magical moments....and this one has plenty of them! So, instead of summarizing the film, I say just watch it and all the weirdness and just enjoy....it's clever, cute and much like so many of his other films, albeit the only one with a gigantic moon that eats telescopes!! Fun.