Le Voyage dans la Lune

A group of astronomers travel to the moon by getting shot out of a large cannon. They head into the interiors and encounter strange moon-men among giant mushrooms. The version I saw is black and white with a modern narration. The narration is off-putting and out-of-place. I would have loved to see the hand painted colors. Nevertheless, this is a classic. It is imaginative. It is beautiful. It has a nice narrative flow like watching a children's book come to life. The effects are fun. This is a cinematic icon.

Title says it all. Méliès was an interesting man, this is an inspiring movie.

Trip to the Moon, A (1902)

**** (out of 4)

aka Le Voyage dans la Lune

George Melies' landmark film tells the story of a group of men who want to explore the moon so they build a rocket and fly there only to discover some moon monsters. There's no question that this is one of the greatest landmarks in the history of cinema and the amusing story just shows the wonderful mind of the director. This really is a fairy tale about what the moon would be like and this moon creation is something we've seen in the director's previous films but this time out we get to explore the fairy tale. I think the greatest thing about this movie is its visual look, which really blows ones mind when you consider how well it holds up today. The look of the moon is brilliantly done as is the underground creatures that attack towards the end. There's also the landmark scene of the ship flying into the face of the moon and there's no question this is one of the greatest scenes in film history even if it was made over a hundred years ago.

In twenty years, Georges Méliès has designed and made approximately 600 short films, before prematurely disappearing because of a precarious financial situation aggravated by a widowhood in 1913 and the First World War in 1914. His originals were mainly destroyed between 1914 and 1925, either to recover the silver in themselves or to transform them into heels of military shoes for the "poilus", i.e. French World War I infantrymen. Thus, those available today, on YouTube for instance, are mostly hand-colored copies.

A century later, Georges Méliès is unanimously considered as a prolific and awesome pioneer. In France, he built the first film studio. He dedicated his life to silent film and illusions. This film is a masterpiece of illusions and poetry, thanks to many technical innovations, well before Avengers: Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2019). It is part of the French heritage, as Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (Walter R. Booth, 1901) in UK, or The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) in USA.

"Le voyage dans la lune" (1902, Georges Méliès) is loosely based on a story by Jules Verne. It also contains a little Greek mythology in that the inhabitants of the moon (Selenieten) are named after Selene, the Goddess of the moon.

The poster with the moon having a rocket ship in his eye is iconographic. The film itself is mainly of historical importance, but this historical importance is big.

Georges Méliès was one of the founding fathers of early cinema. He pioneered in special effects and made a start with film editing. His roots were in vaudeville theater. This can be seen in "Le voyage dans la lune" when the launching of the rocket ship is festively accompanied by a couple of cheerleader like girls.

Thanks to the initiatives of his countrymen the Pathé brothers film did outgrow the vaudeville format and got a theater of his own, called a cinema. Méliès fell into oblivion and got financial problems. Only due to a rediscovery in 1929 he could spend his last years carefree.