At a Scientific Congress, Professor Barbenfouillis proposes
to take a trip to explore the moon and tries to convince his colleagues to join
him in this expedition. Upon the idea finally being accepted, the expedition is
organised and Barbenfouillis along with his fellow scientists are catapulted
into space, landing right on the moon. But things take a downward turn when the
group is attacked by the hostile inhabitants, the Selenites, and taken to their
king.
It may be over a century old and slightly laughable in the eyes of the
everyday viewer, but Georges Melies’ A
Trip to the Moon still remains a historically significant piece of work in
cinematic history and for those out there who are interested in cinema, it’s
something to be appreciated for a whole lot of different reasons.
At a
Scientific Congress, Professor Barbenfouillis proposes to take a trip to
explore the moon and tries to convince his colleagues to join him in this
expedition. Upon the idea finally being accepted, the expedition is organised and
Barbenfouillis along with his fellow scientists are catapulted into space,
landing right on the moon. But things take a downward turn when the group is
attacked by the hostile inhabitants, the Selenites, and taken to their king.
The first thing we have to consider when we look closely at this movie’s
significance is the context in which it was made. In 1902, the release year of
this film, filmmaking as an art form was a new game being invented. There was
not an established set of ‘rules’ and the scope of imagination was the biggest
boundary and asset to filmmakers. The film has a screen time of around 12-13
minutes, which at the time was quite revolutionary as all other features were 2
to 3 minutes.
This was also the first film to play with genre, being generally
considered the first example of science fiction by means of its special effects
and characteristic traits of the genre: the spaceship, the discovery of a new
frontier, and the conflict with native inhabitants. Melies’ past experiences as
a theatre actor and magician are seen to be particularly influential in the
film with the performances being grandiose as though on stage and the set
direction working to support the movement between acts.
The sets, although
theatrical, are nonetheless effective and the people who created them deserve a
tip of the hat.
On top of all this we have some very early examples of editing
techniques that have come to be quite commonplace and ‘textbook’ within modern
cinema: superimpositions, dissolves, fades, and other such techniques.
Starring
Georges Melies, Victor Andre, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Jeanne d’Alcy, Henri
Delannoy, Depierre, Farjaut, and Kelm, A
Trip to the Moon is akin to that “giant leap for mankind” that Armstrong
talked about on the moon. On top of it being the first feature longer than 2
minutes, the first to play with genre, and the first to experiment with various
editing techniques, it was also the first film to establish the difference
between cinematic fiction and nonfiction. Where every other film depicted real,
everyday exercises such as the arrival of a train, A Trip to the Moon took its audiences out of this world and really
broadened the field as to what cinema could portray. For anyone who really
loves their movies or is interested in the art form of cinema and filmmaking,
this movie is something that you should watch: it’ll really open your eyes as
to how immaculate the progression of filmmaking is. It might be even fair to
say that the modern blockbusters wouldn’t be here without this film and the
ideas and steps forward it took.
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