Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Professor Barbenfouillis / The Moon: Georges Méliès
- Lady in the Moon (uncredited): Bleuette Bernon
- Astronomer (uncredited): Victor André
- Captain of the Rocket (uncredited): Henri Delannoy
- Astronomer (uncredited): Brunnet
- Astronomer (uncredited): Depierre
- Astronomer (uncredited): Farjaut
- Astronomer (uncredited): Kelm
- Officer of the Marines (uncredited): François Lallement
- Secretary / Star / Rocket Attendant (uncredited): Jehanne d’Alcy
- Parade Leader (uncredited): Jules-Eugène Legris
Film Crew:
- Novel: Jules Verne
- Producer: Georges Méliès
- Director of Photography: Lucien Tainguy
- Art Direction: Charles Claudel
- Novel: H.G. Wells
- Costume Designer: Jehanne d’Alcy
- Director of Photography: Théophile Michault
Movie Reviews:
- Gimly: I just knew this was gonna have a high score on letterboxd. Yo, it’s important, it’s visionary, it’s observable history, it’s revolutionary for it’s time, all that jazz. But guess what else? I don’t for a minute believe those people actually went to the moon.
Should still be required viewing for film classes though.
_Final rating:★★½ – Not quite for me, but I definitely get the appeal._
- dogstir: _A Trip to the Moon_ (1902), initially titled in French as _Le Voyage dans la Lune_, is director Georges Méliès’ most famous film out of the more than 500 films he made. He stars as Professor Barbenfouillis, who, along with several other astronomers, boards a bullet-shaped spacecraft fired from a long cannon onto the moon’s surface. Once there, the astronauts explore the moon, sleep under the open stars, and after a snowstorm, they flee into a cavern where they discover moon inhabitants (called Selenites after the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene). After being attacked, the astronauts return to their spaceship and fall from the moon back to the Earth, where they are welcomed as heroes.
There are multiple versions of this film, both in black & white and hand-colored versions. The 2010 “restored” version of this film is colorized, and it features a modern-day score by the French musical group, Air (with members Nicolas Godin, Nicolas Godin, Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Jean-Benoît Dunckel). This version is a surreal, psychedelic acid trip (which has a long-lost parade scene at the end of the film). The black & white versions, with traditional string scores (and often narration), are easier to watch.
This film gets 3.5 stars mostly because it was the earliest science fiction film and the earliest film containing animation which I have seen.