If you learned anything about me from last year, you should know I am the laziest movie critic of our time. Why else would I constantly review Netflix originals and movies that came out within the last fifty years? Well young voyagers, we’re now traveling farther than we’ve ever attempted before. Buckle your seatbelts because our destination lies 116 years in the distant past, during the dawn of cinema. This week’s movie is “A Trip to the Moon.”
“Le Voyage dans la Lune” or “A Trip to the Moon” is a French film from 1902 by revolutionary filmmaker Georges Méliès. Called the father of narrative filmmaking, Méliès was one of the first to realize the new medium could be used for telling stories. In addition to his narrative developments, Méliès made great strides in editing and special effects because of his previous career as a magician. He made 520 films over the course of his life.
I discovered this movie by watching the 2011 Martin Scorsese movie, “Hugo,” an adaptation of the book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick (it’s also one of my all-time favorite films, so you should check it out). “Hugo” offers a fictionalized version of the later years of Méliès and his return to the spotlight.
In “Hugo,” one of the central images is a rocket ship landing in the eye of the Man in the Moon. It is the film’s most iconic image and one, I believe, most everyone would recognize if they saw it. You may have seen the Google doodle version earlier this year, when Google honored Méliès by making the image the first virtual reality doodle.
Before I can get into the plot, I have something to say: this movie is only 14 minutes long. However, I would suggest you not call it a short film as I haven’t heard anyone in the film community refer to it as such. Based on the technology of the time, it is by all standards a film. It wouldn’t be a proper review from me without a certain degree of film snobbery.
Let’s get into the plot! “A Trip to the Moon” begins with at a meeting of the Astrological Society. The scientists watch astonished as Professor Barbenfouillis (Méliès) explains their next endeavor; a flight course with the moon as their destination. A group of astronomers, including Barbenfouillis, agree to go on this mission. The men design a rocket that is shaped like bullet and that is fired from a cannon. The astronomers land on the moon and take in the scenery, most notably Earth rising in the distance.
After a short rest where personified stars and the moon goddess, Phoebe, toy with them, the men awake to it snowing. They travel to a garden of mushrooms and meet a Selenite, an inhabitant of the moon. When a group of Selenites appear, they are briefly captured, but end up escaping. The rocket falls off a ledge and into the ocean, but not before a lone Selenite grabs onto the rocket before its departure. The movie ends with the Selenite being captured and a parade is held to celebrate the astronomers’ extraordinary journey.
If I’m being honest, I like what “A Trip to the Moon” gave to the world of film more than I like the actual plot. As someone who’s seen many people go to the moon and into space in my lifetime, this movie’s idea of space exploration is hilarious.
However, I still watch the Man in the Moon scene and the mushroom garden scene with the same sense of wonderment that people back in the 1900s probably did. The art design is a spectacle to behold. I’m also a big fan of the editing, as it makes good use of the lack of shot differentiation (however, it’s understandable because film cameras were very expensive back then, even if you were as prolific as Méliès). Some cute things to notice are the dissolves (one of the first uses of it) and substitution splices (when a shot cuts and an object from the previous frame disappears).
In the end, if you are ever curious about narrative filmmaking’s history, I believe Méliès is the best place to start. To quote Sir Ben Kingsley in the role of Méliès, he invites you to, “Come and dream with me.”
Overall rating: 6/10
