Even if you haven’t seenA Trip to the Moon(Le voyage dans la lune), you’ve likely seen the image that’s come to represent it. A man’s tortured faceis embedded in the moon’s surface, one eye gouged out by the arrival of a squat, heavy rocket ship. It’s as beautiful as it is disturbing — and it’s from one of the most influential science fiction films ever made. (By some accounts, also the first.) The 1902 film is only 14 minutes long, but its groundbreaking cinematic techniques still impact filmmaking in the present day. In fact, CGI-fatigued audiences might be surprised at how effective they continue to be. Maybe the only thing more interesting thanA Trip to the Moonis its creator. At once an actor, artist, set builder, and more, visionary directorGeorges Mélièsseems almost to have dreamed his movies onto their filmstrips. It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that Méliès was also an illusionist. The originator and/or popularizer of techniques like stop-motion, slow motion, and double exposure, his greatest trick was his cinema. We still fall for it today.
Georges Méliès and His Movies
Georges Mélièswas born in France in 1861, a time before “the movies” as we know them even existed. He discovered his love for the on-screen arts at a screening of theLumièrebrothers' work — the two had pioneered the useof projection screens by inventing a new kind of camera. (Previously, everyone had to peer through the hole of a kinetoscope.) He instantly fell in love, attempting to buy one of the brothers' “Cinématographe” machines. Turned down, he took matters into his own hands, obtaining a similar mechanism from another manufacturer. There was just one problem: It could only project movies, not film them. Naturally, Méliès reverse-engineered the thing into a camera, and that was that: The world was on the way to discovering genre films. At the time, movies weren’t really fictional — they mostly stuck to the realm of documentary or to events that could plausibly play out in real life. Méliès aimed to change all that. He wanted to bring to life the sci-fi stories ofJules Verne, to create fantastical worlds and impossible beings. Even though much of his early work is experimental, dedicated to displaying new camera tricks, (there is a term for this — trick films) it’s still captivating. And in films as early as 1896’sThe Haunted Castle, for instance, camera tricks like a skeleton turning into a bat are nestled within a larger silent story. Méliès just kept expanding, building his own glass-encased studio in France. (He hoped it would help with more natural light.) Between the years of 1896 and 1913, he made over 500 films, including art form staples likeThe Impossible VoyageandBlue Beard. But his greatest accomplishment would be filmed in 1902:A Trip to the Moon.
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‘A Trip to the Moon’ Makes History
In the first scenes ofA Trip to the Moon, a group of wizard-like scientists attempt to leave Earth. They jostle excitedly and gesticulate wildly, already showing the signs of Méliès' fantastical design style. His sets are richly painted, the actors almost blending in. A rich visual combination of the actor’s bodies and his set pieces finalizes the beautiful blurring together of planes. It’s almost like watching a painting come to life. The men, who turn out to be scientists, are taking a rocket ship to space. Méliès himself plays their leader. In a clever usage of perspective, the rocket launcher stretches far into the flat sky — Méliès envisions it as similar to a huge cannon. Then, through the night sky, the man in the moon edges closer to the camera. Suddenly, in a quick cut, the rocket is lodged in his face, something soft dripping down his cheek. Emerging onto the surface, everything has suddenly been warped — no longer on Earth, everything from the surroundings to the weather has changed. Surrounded by a crystalline surface, they sleep. Above them, blooming clouds open to reveal women’s faces – and suddenly, it’s clear that Méliès has invented a new kind of filmmaking. Abstract and cinematic,A Trip to the Moonisprobably the first sci-fi movie ever made— and still one of the best. Far from a newsreel, the film explores themes of imperialism, space travel, and beauty. It’s a must-watch for any fan of the cinematic arts. After all, it did influence them greatly.
‘A Trip to the Moon’ Left a Lunar Legacy
A Trip to the Moondid more than break a genre barrier — it broke down filmmaking barriers for others. Méliès' techniques allowed other directors to improve upon their own. (As well as adapt his.) But that doesn’t mean his career was safe. ThoughA Trip to the Moonwas popular at the time, it was a loss for Méliès financially — exacerbated by American piracy from the likes ofThomas Edison. (Not that that’s surprising, considering Edison’s history of invention theft.) Though he made several more acclaimed films, most notably 1903’sThe Kingdom of the Fairies, Méliès' later years would see him go through difficult times. The rise of the film industry, combined with the onset of World War I and other personal and financial issues, led to the decline of his practice.
Méliès lost almost everything.Soldiers even confiscated his negatives to meltthe material down for shoe heels, a strangely tragic end to his art. But the real, final blow came when he lost his beloved studio. Without a place to store them, Méliès burned many of the negatives and materials used to make his films, rendering them lost to time. In a way, it almost seems fitting: These dreams were too fleeting to last. Thankfully, we’ve recovered over 200 of his films, meaning aspiring artists might still glean inspiration from their glittering content. In fact, they already have been. DirectorMartin Scorcese, ofTaxi Driverfame, hascited Méliès as an inspiration, and has even adapted a children’s book inspired by his work, 2011’sHugo. Though we may never see all of Méliès' oeuvre, we’ll always have one of his greatest stories. Without it, today’s cinema would look much less magical.
