A Trip to the Moon released September 1, 1902

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kpnbl3tn58]

The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second, which was the standard frame rate at the time the film was produced. It was extremely popular at the time of its release and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the well-known image of the rocketship landing in the moon’s eye.

It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking in at #84.

When originally screened, the film featured a final scene depicting a celebratory parade in honor of the travelers’ return. Until recently, this scene was considered lost, and did not appear on any commercially available editions. However, a complete cut of the film was discovered in a French barn in 2002. Not only is it the most complete cut of the movie, but it is also entirely hand-colored. It was restored and premiered in 2003 at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. The complete film is now available on the extensive new box set.

Film and special effects pioneer Georges Melies laid the groundwork for fantasy film as we know it today. This collection celebrates the innovations of the magician entrepreneur and filmmaker with 15 restored Melies shorts including some of the earliest film experiments in history. Also featured is Jacques Meny’s fine documentary The Magic of Melies (1997 55 mins.). Films: The Four Troublesome Heads (1898) Fat and Lean Wrestling Match (1900) The One-Man Band (1900) The Man with the Rubber Head (1901) Bluebeard (1901) A Trip to the Moon (1902) The Infernal Boiling Pot (1903) The Infernal Cakewalk (1903) The Music Lover (1903) The Living Playing Cards (1904) Hilarious Posters (1904) Imperceptible Transmutations (1904) Untameable Whiskers (1904) The Scheming Gambler’s Paradise (1905) and The Devilish Tenant (1909). The Melies shorts are silent with original music by Eric Le Guen. The Magic of Melies is in French and English with English subtitles.

 

In Popular Culture:

In the second episode of Futurama, Bender shoves a beer bottle through a moon-faced mascot’s eye, making it look like the moon in the film.

The film serves as a basis for the music video for The Smashing Pumpkins 1996 single, “Tonight, Tonight.” Also Queen used it for one of the Heaven For Everyone videos.

Julian Barratt, Chris Halliday and Noel Fielding’s Television show “The Mighty Boosh” uses the moon as a character (played by Fielding), who holds much similarity to the “man in the moon” in the film. The moon is infrequently shown each episode(except the 1st season), sometimes commenting vaguely on the events or subjects of the episode.

The film features prominently in the final episode of the HBO miniseries From The Earth to the Moon. The episode which is also entitled Le Voyage dans la Lune, inter-cuts between the last Apollo mission (Apollo 17) and the making of the film. Tom Hanks not only narrates the episode but also stars in it as Jean-Luc Despont. Georges Méliès is played by Tchéky Karyo.

Filed under: Science Fiction

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