A year before the Wright brothers launched the first airplane flight in 1903, Georges Méliès, a French filmmaker with already 400 films to his credit, directed a film that visualized a much bigger human ambition – landing a spacecraft on the moon. Loosely based on works by Jules Vernes (From the Earth to the Moon) and H. G. Wells (The First Men in the Moon), A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune) invented one of our favorite cinematic genres – the science fiction film. Today, many film critics consider Méliès’ short film an enduring classic. The Village Voice ranked it #84 on its list of the 100 Best Films of the 20th Century, and you’ll almost certainly recognize the iconic shot at the 4:44 mark.
Méliès’s body of work, which goes well beyond this landmark film, has been recently collected into a new box set. Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913) puts 173 rare and rediscovered films onto 5 discs. BrainPickings has more on this 13 hour collection.
A Trip to the Moon has been added to our collection of Free Movies Online. You can also download a version at the Internet Archive.
Related Content:
Fantasmagorie: The First Animated Film
Where Horror Film Began: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
I was first introduced to this film, while I was at university. And I still love my professor for it :)
love this movie, too! did a score for the second half of it last year, if anyone is interested :) http://vimeo.com/16757866