À la conquête du pôle

Méliès made some pretty weird features, and this is one of the strangest. It's certainly entertaining to watch, and at times it reminds you of "Trip to the Moon", although it is not as good. The main difference is that "Conquest of the Pole" has more padding, material that doesn't go anywhere other than to set up some camera tricks. Yet it's still worth seeing, and it is filled with interesting visual effects.

The story itself, based on another Jules Verne story, starts off in a fashion similar to some other Méliès adaptations of Verne, this time with a scientist detailing his plans to go to the North Pole. It gets bizarre pretty fast, and many of the conceptions seem unnecessarily wacky. Yet there is always plenty to see on the screen, and Méliès's imagination is displayed in numerous ways. It's an interesting feature that is worth seeing for anyone who finds the great visual effects pioneer's movies interesting or enjoyable.

It's been 16 years since director Georges Melies started making his illusionary, "trick" films. Over that time, he was able to fine-tune his craft, involving his special effects techniques, that he originally pioneered back in 1896. As we approach the twilight of his career, he was still using just a stationary camera. With his dazzling set pieces, he took audiences to fantastic worlds. In this film, Melies out-does himself with the spectacle of a Polar Giant, that terrorizes our Arctic explorers during an exciting climax. In what is a repeat of Melies many other films, crafted with a template that dazzled his audiences, explorers gather together to figure out their plans for a trip to the North Pole. Once all the members are happy, the race to the Pole begins.

This film suffers from being a little bit too long. It is Melies longest film he ever did. It also is a little top-heavy, with a dragged out, build-up, in the beginning and middle of the film, which does, eventually, culminate with a great ending. Once they arrive, the men run into all kinds of magical happenings, found in a wondrous world and built with a fantastic design. Melies design. It is 1912 and Melies builds a giant creature with a head bigger than five people. It's the amount of work done by Melies, that really endeared him to movie fans. The Arctic Giant is some of his best work. His pioneering spirit is what made him great. I just wish some of the scenes were a little bit tighter and not dragged out. Still, this film is a sight to see.

7.9 (B- MyGrade) = 8 IMDB.

Conquest of the North Pole (1912)

aka Conquete du pole, La

*** (out of 4)

Georges Melies film that tries to rival his legendary A Trip to the Moon but doesn't come that close. A group of scientists try to determine a way to reach the North Pole. Once there they must do battle with a large ice monster. The stuff dealing with the ice monster was terrific and this creature is one of the best of Melies career.

In early 2008 there will be a box set released and will feature over 170 Melies' shorts.

In many, many ways, this film is like Georges Méliès' triumph from almost a decade earlier--"Voyage Dans le Lune". In fact, if you didn't know they were made 9 year apart, you would have sworn that they were made at the same time. While I enjoyed the film a lot, the similarity in style is an indicator why this wonderful filmmaker soon fell out of favor--he was using techniques that had just become passé. Crowds were looking for something new. But the only really new aspect of "The Conquest of the Pole" is that it is very, very lengthy for a Méliès product--at 33 minutes (which was pretty long for 1912).

The movie begins with a bizarre scientific meeting. The leading minds from all over the world are meeting to discuss how to go to the pole. Some want to take cars, some want balloons and others want flying contraptions. It's funny because they folks mostly just argue (like they did in "Voyage Dans le Lune"), some of the folks there seem way out of place (such as the Mexican banditos) and it only gets worse when the comic relief arrives in the form of obnoxious suffragettes. The director was obviously making a statement about women's rights here and portrays their leader as a total jerk.

Soon the various expeditions begin and soon most of them result in killing these people. However, although they'd only talked about building the one flying machine, the sky is filled with hundreds or more! Now you'd think this would be a pretty straight-forward flight but it looks like his moon movie once again--and the flying machine is whizzing past stars, planets and comets--all being held in the air by beautiful women.

The arrival gets weird, as they soon see a giant--and the giant is a very funny piece of equipment. You really have to see it and the ending to believe them.

The bottom line is that this film, quality-wise, is little improvement over Méliès' early films BUT it does have a certain quaint charm. You can't help laugh at many of the situations (especially when the giant eats a member of the expedition) and it's a cute window into a bygone era. Amazing to look at and a bit silly as well. This is among the filmmaker's last films--and is a nice window into what he was doing before he stopped making films entirely the following year.

The great French innovator finally seems to be running out of imagination here. Having invented cinema as we understand it today, he eventually had to exhaust his fount of inspiration.

This film could best be described as a remake of his "Voyage to the Moon" from 1902. Unfortunately much of the old vim is missing. Sequences run on for too long. At times the film seems more primitive than many of his earlier films.

Still, there was life in the old boy yet. The « géant des neiges » (giant of the snows) episode is quite good with a monster who swallows intrepid Arctic explorers whole. The ice giant is about as good an effect as Fafner the dragon in Fritz Lang's "Siegfried", and that film was made in 1924. There is a funny moment when the explorers reach the Earth's Magnetic Pole. They are attracted right onto the needle they find and get stuck there.

The long (too long) scene where the explorers in their airship fly past the signs of the zodiac reminded me strangely of what Dorothy sees from her window as she is caught in the tornado in "The Wizard of Oz". That would make Méliès nearly 30 years ahead of his time.

Nevertheless, I got the same impression I get with a lot of modern special effects films. Méliès was spending more money without necessarily expending more ingenuity. Perhaps he was only trying to imitate the lesser but more successful mortals who came after him.