Tweet "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" (1902) By Georges Méliès

“Apollo XI” wasn’t the first manned mission to land on the moon… 67 years before a French expedition landed on the Earth satellite using a powerful and new invention of the time: the cinematographer!.

If there is a milestone, a fundamental masterpiece in the history of silent cinema, that’s undoubtedly “Le Voyage Dans La Lune” ( A Trip To The Moon ) (1902), a wonderful piece of early silent film art full of image icons easily recognizable throughout the whole world, especially the sequence wherein the lunar capsule lands in the eye of the moon.
The responsibility for such a spectacular silent task fell to Herr Georges Méliès, father of the cinema, magician and poet of early silent imagery.

“Le Voyage Dans La Lune” continues to fascinate new audiences after so many years because the essence of dreams is in every frame of this wonderful picture; man’s curiosity about exploring new and unknown worlds is showcased in the most astonishing and beautiful form, a modern trip to the moon full of wonderful and inventive décors, outstanding camera tricks and now…, in colour!!.

In 1993 a colour copy was found in the “Filmoteca De Catalunya” in Barcelona, an amazing silent discovery that gave the opportunity for new modern audiences to watch the first masterpiece of silent film history in a fully hand coloured edition ( that beautiful colour process created by your great-great grandfathers ) .

It was a very complicated process due to the deteriorated state of such old nitrate, but after 12 years and thanks to skilful hands and the new longhaired technologies, “Le Voyage Dans La Lune” was finally reconstructed and prémiered again in selected theatres around the world.

In some of these selected theatres, as certainly in the Schloss theatre, ja wohl!!... a French documentary entitled “Le Voyage Extraordinaire” by Herr Serge Bromberg is screened before the main silent attraction; it’s a very interesting documentary about the complicated and the time-consuming task that it was to restore over 14.000 individual frames of the film. It also talks about the life and times of its creator, Herr Georges Méliès,

Isn’t wonderful and amazing that after 110 years we continue to be fascinated by “Le Voyage Dans La Lune”??... Few films in silent history enjoy such a privilege.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must flee from the dangerous Selenites.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien
http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com

"“Le Voyage Dans La Lune” continues to fascinate new audiences after so many years because the essence of dreams is in every frame of this wonderful picture"

That raises an interesting point...
If indeed, the film draws upon H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon (seems obvious to me that it does although Melies only really ever acknowledged Jules Verne), then in turn the dreamlike nature could be indirectly due to......Johannes Kepler and his' Somnium (which chronicles an it's-all-a-dream journey to the moon). Wells - say some scholars - paid tribute to Kepler in his novel by having the FMinM characters - on more than one occasion - note the dreamlike nature of their trip. Personally, I think it's possible (dunno how probable) that Melies picked up on this especially in view of the fact that the travelers take a quick snooze in one of the tableaux.

The influences on this little film are staggering. I would recommend Matthew Solomon's book on A Trip to the Moon for those interested in learning more.

Steve

PS Stay clear of those Selenites!!

Woah! This is an important film but claiming that it's influenced by Verne, Welles AND Kepler is probably giving it more weight than it can carry. I imagine Melies responding with "Verne, Yes. Wells- do you think I've got time to read novels? I've got movies to make and a theater to run. Kepler- who in heavens is he?"

Woah! This is an important film but claiming that it's influenced by Verne, Welles AND Kepler is probably giving it more weight than it can carry. I imagine Melies responding with "Verne, Yes. Wells- do you think I've got time to read novels? I've got movies to make and a theater to run. Kepler- who in heavens is he?"

Well, it's all speculation. Did he consciously say to himself that he was going to put a dash of Kepler into his film? Probably not. ...Could he have picked it up in a scoop of Wells? More likely.
After all, there are other Wellsian items in the film: snow scenes, the Earth view, man-size mushrooms, giant swift growing plants and others besides the dream sequence.All in First Men in the Moon. Not much of a connection, you say? OK then how are the Selenites explained? Nobody even lands on the moon in the Verne novels. They are never even mentioned by Verne other than in a quick one or two sentence speculation that they exist. Yet, the Melies characters are captured by them (ala Wells' Cavor & Bedford) and meet the leader (the Grand Lunar in FMitM), Melies' Selenites look like Wells' book illustrations, Melies' Selenites are fragile as in Wells and so on...
That's pretty strong evidence that Wells influenced the Frenchman...and the conclusion that he did is shared by others.
We could go into it more, but the filmmaker - to many minds - also took his cue from fairgrounds exhibits, Magic Lantern/Glass Slide shows, plays, and everywhere he could. Any and all of these could have impacted the film. There were “A Trip to the Moon” examples of each back then.
Now, to pick up on the Kepler association was probably too isolated an example on my part. But to counter your statement that Melies might say “Wells- do you think I've got time to read novels? I've got movies to make and a theater to run. Kepler- who in heavens is he?”. Gosh just look at his film catalog…he “adapts” (for entertainment, granted) tons of things. Not aware of the writings of Kepler from way back when? Maybe. Maybe not. No time to read? Well, he must have read something to have given the astronauts such names as Nostradamus (who arguably prophesized moon travel in a rare passage), Alcolfribas (undoubtedly after the author Alcofribas Nasier a.k.a. Francois Rabelais with fictional characters that …traveled to the moon back in the 1500s even before Kepler’s writing) and Micromegas (a character in a Voltaire story who space travels), Who in heavens are all of them?

Steve

OK, I was being flippant, but I still think that this film is getting so much critical analysis that it takes the fun out of it.

I should also admit that I'm a bit "off" Melies at the moment- I made the mistake of watching too many in succession on the Flicker Alley set. His best films are marvelous, but seeing too many of his second-best is like eating a whole bag of marshmallows at one sitting.

OK, I was being flippant, but I still think that this film is getting so much critical analysis that it takes the fun out of it.

I should also admit that I'm a bit "off" Melies at the moment- I made the mistake of watching too many in succession on the Flicker Alley set. His best films are marvelous, but seeing too many of his second-best is like eating a whole bag of marshmallows at one sitting.

More than anything it'll always be fun to watch Melies. And I agree with you. Watching too many of his films - much like viewing too many chapters of a serial - in one sitting is tedious.

Steve

Well, it's all speculation. Did he consciously say to himself that he was going to put a dash of Kepler into his film? Probably not. ...Could he have picked it up in a scoop of Wells? More likely.
After all, there are other Wellsian items in the film: snow scenes, the Earth view, man-size mushrooms, giant swift growing plants and others besides the dream sequence.All in First Men in the Moon.

A good analysis. And if there were a magic lantern show adapted from Welles' story, it would have given Melies the set pieces he needed for a rousing yarn. Part of the difference is the technology -- Jules Verne's idea of shooting the astronauts in a shell gave them no way to get home if they landed on the moon, so he chickened out and had the shot miss. (Melies answer, of just tipping the shell off the edge of the moon, was too much in violation of gravitational law for Verne's attempts to be accurate with his science.)

Welles' very clever but very impossible method -- the invention of a substance impervious to gravity, so that you could cover your ship in shutters made of that substance and it would fly off the earth as the earth spins under it, then you can open shutters towards the object you want the ship attracted to -- is far less cinematic; but it DOES allow you to get back from the moon using the same method you took to get there.

Besides, what good Frenchman would credit an English author, when there's a perfectly good French author to be proud of?

A good analysis.

Thanks! Now, the only part that I haven't doped out yet is how the astronaut and esteemed space man Fernandigalus fits into things!!!

Steve

A good analysis.

Thanks! Now, the only part that I haven't doped out yet is how the astronaut and esteemed space man Fernandigalus fits into things!!!

Steve

Usually lenghty articles often go unread by German counts not to mention longhaired discussions about ancient books on science issues ( at most, text captions ), for this reason Günthell did a summary written in a manner that is understandable to German counts and in this way finally this Herr Von could enjoy and learn a lot about such peculiar book scientific discussion on sci-fi French and English literature.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien
http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com