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A TRIP TO THE MOON
by George Méliès
“A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.” Sounds simple, and it is. However, no one had successfully achieved the technical and narrative accomplishments that Méliès does here, previous to that moment in cinema. Although Jules Verne’s novel, “From the Earth to the Moon”, served as the source material for the film’s plot in a very loose sense, this is entirely a film from the mind of its creator.
The film was an international success on its release, and was extensively pirated by other studios (especially in the United States). Its unusual length, lavish production values, innovative special effects, and emphasis on storytelling were markedly influential on other film-makers and ultimately on the development of narrative film as a whole.
REASONS TO WATCH
– One of the earliest known science fiction films. A segment near the end was animated, making this one of the first animated films also.
– Almost lost entirely; it was only in 2010 that a complete restoration could be launched, 109 years after its creation!
– The film remains the best-known of the 520 films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the capsule lands in the Moon’s eye remains one of the most iconic and frequently referenced images in the history of cinema.
– This film had one of the largest budgets for a short film of its era. Budgetary estimates range from 10,000-30,000 francs.
NOTES
After finishing work on the film, Georges Méliès intended to release it in America and thereby make lots of money. Unfortunately, Thomas A. Edison’s film technicians had already secretly made copies of the film, which was shown across the USA within weeks. Melies never made any money from the film’s American showings, and went broke several years later (while Edison made a fortune on the film).
Scholars have commented upon the film’s extensive use of pataphysical and anti-imperialist satire, as well as on its wide influence on later film-makers and its artistic significance within the French theatrical féerie tradition. Though the film disappeared into obscurity after Méliès’s retirement from the film industry, it was rediscovered around 1930, when Méliès’s importance to the history of cinema was beginning to be recognized by film devotees. An original hand-colored print was discovered in 1993 and restored in 2011.
As ‘A Short History of Film’ notes, ‘A Trip to the Moon’ combined “spectacle, sensation, and technical wizardry to create a cosmic fantasy that was an international sensation.” It was profoundly influential on later filmmakers, bringing creativity to the cinematic medium and offering fantasy for pure entertainment, a rare goal in film at the time. In addition, Méliès’ innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the medium. The film also spurred on the development of cinematic science fiction and fantasy by demonstrating that scientific themes worked on the screen and that reality could be transformed by the camera. In a 1940 interview, Edwin S. Porter said that it was by seeing ‘A Trip to the Moon‘ and other Méliès films that he “came to the conclusion that a picture telling a story might draw the customers back to the theatres, and set to work in this direction.” Similarly, D. W. Griffith said simply of Méliès: “I owe him everything.” Since these American directors are widely credited with developing modern film narrative technique, the literary and film scholar Edward Wagenknecht once summed up Méliès’s importance to film history by commenting that Méliès “profoundly influenced both Porter and Griffith and through them the whole course of American film-making.”
The film has been evoked in other creative works many times, ranging from Segundo de Chomón’s 1908 unauthorized remake ‘Excursion to the Moon’ through the extensive tribute to Méliès and the film in the Brian Selznick novel ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ and its 2011 Martin Scorsese film adaptation ‘Hugo’. Film scholar Andrew J. Rausch includes ‘A Trip to the Moon’ among the “32 most pivotal moments in the history of film,” saying it “changed the way movies were produced.” Chiara Ferrari’s essay on the film in ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die‘, which places ‘A Trip to the Moon’ as the first entry, argues that the film “directly reflects the histrionic personality of its director”, and that the film “deserves a legitimate place among the milestones in world cinema history.”
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Enjoy the film!