Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures/The Zanuck Company
Producer: Tim Burton, Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Linda Woolverton from the novel by Lewis Carroll
Director of Photography: Dariusz Wolski
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Production Design: Robert Stromberg
Art Direction: Stefan Dechant
Special Effects Supervisor: Michael Lantieri
Visual Effects Supervisors: Ken Ralston, Sean Phillips, Carey Villegas
Special Effects Makeup: Kevin McTurk
Wig and Makeup Designer: Paul Gooch
Locations: Cornwall, Devon, UK
Release Date: 5 March 2010
Cast: Mia Wasikowska (Alice Kingsley), Johnny Depp (The Mad Hatter), Anne Hathaway (The White Queen), Michael Sheen (The White Rabbit), Helena Bonham Carter (The Red Queen), Alan Rickman (The Caterpillar), Christopher Lee (The Jabberwock), Stephen Fry (The Cheshire Cat), Crispin Glover (The Knave of Hearts), Timothy Spall (The Bloodhound), Marton Csokas (Charles Kingsley), Noah Taylor (The March Hare), Matt Lucas (Tweedledee/Tweedledum), Eleanor Tomlinson (Fiona Chataway), Lindsay Duncan (Helen Kingsley), Frances de la Tour (Aunt Imogene), Tim Pigott-Smith (Lord Ascot), Barbara Windsor (The Dormouse), Geraldine James (Lady Ascot)
Comment: Some things just seem right the moment you hear them, and the words Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland being used in the same sentence qualifies. The movie, written by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King), will mix actors and CGI (in 3-D, naturally), and is not due for release until next March, but Disney have released a few images to whet our appetites. The cast seem perfect for their roles (Matt Lucas as Tweedledee/Tweedledum, and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat are particularly inspired), and we're glad to see a relative unknown, Australian Mia Wasikowska (from Greg Mclean’s Rogue [2007], which starred Sam Worthington), cast as Alice, instead of the early-rumoured Lindsay Lohan. [Click images for a larger view]
Pig Hunt (2008)
Country: USA
Length: 100 minutes
Production Company: Up Cal Entertainment/Epic Pictures
Executive Producers: Robert Mailer Anderson, Nicola Miner, Chris James, Doug Stewart, Diana Stewart, Daniel Lurie, Rebecca Prowda
Producers: Robert Mailer Anderson, James Isaac
Production Manager: Sharlene Duale
Director: James Isaac
Second Unit Director: Justin Sundquist
Assistant Director: Greg Simmons
Screenplay: Robert Mailer Anderson, Zack Anderson
Editors: Graham Willcox, Sean Barton
Director of Photography: Adam Kane
Music: Les Claypool, David E Russo
Production Designer: Geoffrey Kirkland
Art Director: Garrett Lowe
Sets: Kris Boxell
Special Effects: Thomas F Sindicich
Creature Effects: Kerner Optical, Erik Jensen, Mark Anderson
Visual Effects: Mr X
Makeup: Aurora Bergere
Sound Editor: Fred Runner, Todd Beckett
Sound Design: Andy Newell
Costume Design: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Stunts: Justin Sundquist, Spiro Razatos
Location: Boonville, CA; San Francisco, CA
Budget: $6,000,000
Cast: Travis Aaron Wade (John Hickman), Tina Huang (Brooks), Howard Johnson Jr. (Ben), Trevor Bullock (Quincy), Rajiv Shah (Wayne), Jason Foster (Jake), Nick Tagas (Ricky), Bryonn Bain (Hippie Stranger), Christina McKay (Crystal), Charlie Musselwhite (Charlie), Les Claypool (Preacher), Marissa Ingrasci (Sage), Lanie Grainger (Poppy), Luis Saguar (TJ), Robert Mailer Anderson (Big Train), Lane Foard (Lex Wockenfuss), Chris Paxton (Billy Stankbud), Phillip K. Torretto (Beer Belly Redneck), Michelle Redwine (Willow), India Isaac (India), Cimi Ahluwalia (Cimi), Vince Ballew (Gas Mask), Max Barnett (ZZ Driver), Leanne Borghesi (Darlene), Ty Brenneman (Sexy Cult Girl), Karen Viola (Cult Girl), Cara Cameron (Cult Girl), Joe Lucas (Homeless Vet), Henrietta Musselwhite (woman shelving cans of creamed corn)
Website: www.pighuntmovie.com
Tina Huang as Brooks
Synopsis: John, his girlfriend, Brooks, and friends Ben, Wayne and Quincy (plus Quincy’s dog) head into the hills of Northern California for a few days hunting. Stopping at a gas station they’re told of a 3,000lb “Hogzilla” that roams the woods, and the fact that John’s uncle may have died hunting it down, they also encounter a hippy and his dope smoking girlfriends in a disagreement over the killing of a snake. Driving up to John’s uncle’s cabin, they pass a mountain family, who view them with distrust, and arriving at the cabin, they find it full of irrational scawling, and animal skulls. The next morning they are joined by Jake and Ricky, members of the mountain family, who turn out to be John’s cousins. Heading out into the mountains to hunt for “Pigfoot”, things quickly go wrong and lead to a spiraling torrent of death, weed, animal cruelty and naked hippy chicks.
Les Claypool plays Preacher and wrote the music.
Review: Sometimes you come across a movie that you want to like so much, you actually convince yourself you do, even though your feeling on viewing the film is one of slight disappointment. Such is the case with Pig Hunt, which after taking a laudable amount of time to set up back stories and develop characters, injects a dizzying succession of influences in its last hour, including Mad Max II/The Road Warrior (1981), Southern Comfort (1981), Razorback (1984) and even a dash of Ishirô Honda’s Half Human/Jû Jin Yuki Otoko (1955). All of which makes for a delirious thrill-ride, but leaves the distinct impression that you’ve experienced a dazzling, 100 minute trailer, with outstanding action sequences, but a lack of narrative coherence.
That said, the action, particularly the “pissed off redneck” chase is outstanding, and shows (as does the whole production) astute hiring choices, guaranteed to ensure the budget’s maximum on-screen impact: Stunt Co-ordinators Justin Sundquist and Spiro Razatos (Maniac Cop, Death Race), and their team, particularly 2nd Unit DP, Igor Meglic (Talladega Nights, The Bourne Ultimatum), and dirt bike rider Rex Reddick (Terminator 3, GI Joe), all do an outstanding job, and it’s during these scenes that Pig Hunt bursts into audience-pleasing life. This in contrast to the direction of James Isaac (Jason X, Skinwalkers), who undoubtedly does his best work here, but must be very thankful for his second unit.
Production Design from Geoffrey Kirkland (Midnight Express, Children of Men)—which utilizes producer Robert Mailer Anderson’s childhood home for one setting—and Aggie Rodgers’ (Return of the Jedi, Rock Star) costumes help seal the deal in these later scenes, along with the (thankfully non-CGI) big pig effects from Kerner Optical (part of ILM until 2006), and Primus frontman Les Claypool’s outstanding music (expect Boonville Stomp—available on his solo album Of Fungi and Foe—to soundtrack the trailers for every Southern Gothic movie made in the next five years).
The main deficits come with the addition of poorly executed Gulf War elements (John is a vet, and Ben seems about to head out), which fail to resonate strongly enough for the hero’s final line to have the required impact (despite the nod to Apocalypse Now that preceeds it), and editing from first-timer, Graham Wilcox with Sean Barton (The Empire Strikes Back, The Mutant Chronicles) that often causes confusion, and adds to the missed opportunities of the final few moments.
Acting is uniformly strong, though TIna Huang’s Brooks perhaps deserved the final kill, over Travis Aaron Wade’s slightly dull John, and shows excellent taste, in casting blues harp legend Charlie Musselwhite, prison activist/hip-hop artist/poet Bryonn Bain, and Claypool in key roles.
It’s tempting to draw comparisons between the production team and the story they’ve created (wealthy San Francisco hipsters head into the NorCal woods, where things go horribly wrong), but there’s too much to enjoy here, and it seems churlish to say that the film is less than the sum of its parts, when some of its parts are the best of their kind in far too long.
The Dead Outside (2008)
Country: UK
Length: 86 minutes
Production Company: Mothcatcher Films
Producer: Kris R Bird
Director: Kerry Anne Mullaney
Assistant Director: Matthew J. Wilkin
Screenplay: Kerry Anne Mullaney, Kris R Bird
Editor: Kerry Anne Mullaney
Director of Photography: Kris R Bird
Music: Felix Erskine, David Wilsoni
Song: Evacuate by The Boxer Rebellion
Production Design: Tom Morrison
Special Effects: John Parnham
Makeup: Kerry Gunn
Sound Design: Anne Knox
Costume Design: Ailsa Rendell
Location: Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Cast: Sandra Louise Douglas (April) , Alton Milne (Daniel), Sharon Osdin (Kate) , Vivienne Harvey (Eleanor), John Erskine (April's Grandfather) , Phylis Douglas (April's Grandmother) , Robin Morris (Daniel's Son) , Max Adair (April's Brother) .
Website: www.thedeadoutside.co.uk
Reviewed at the US Premiere, Another Hole in the Head film festival, Roxie cinema, San Francisco, June 12th 2009.
Synopsis: Six months after a neurological plague turns the majority of the populace into incoherent, violent psychopaths, Daniel, fleeing from the infected family he didn’t have the heart to kill, runs out of petrol near a farmhouse in the Scottish Highlands. He quickly discovers that the house belongs to April, a teenager who inherited it from her grandparents. Daniel still injects the government-supplied vaccine that April blames for the spread of the infection, but the girl seems unaffected by the virus, despite frequent contact with the infected, and her habit of spending nights outside the farm’s barbed wire-covered walls, in a graveyard containing the many attackers she has killed. When Kate, a former nurse, arrives at the house, discussion turns to the possibility of April being the key to a cure, and a tense situation becomes potentially deadly.
Review: The first feature from music video director Kerry Anne Mullaney exists in world bleaker and farther north than 28 Days Later, and a little deeper inside the art house. The director makes a benefit of the lack of finance, with gritty visuals and an excellent performance from Sandra Louise Douglas (in her first role), as April, a girl soaked in horror, whose anger may have more meaning than mere teenage angst. The two lead characters exist on opposite sides of a moral divide—Daniel, a good man who still sees the infected as human beings, is haunted (it seems literally in a couple of scenes), by what he couldn’t bring himself to do, whereas April shoots on sight and is almost catatonic from the things she has seen, the people she has lost, and those she has killed.
The script refuses to layer on exposition, leaving the characters room to behave like real people, but sometimes frustrating and alienating the viewer (reminiscent—as is their production company name—of the work of fellow Scot Lynne Ramsay). Motives are unclear and intentions admirably guarded, but this causes a couple of scenes to fall flat, and there tends to be an over reliance on sound design to maintain the (admittedly effective) David Lynch-like atmosphere. This is balanced by a clear understanding of how to ratchet up tension—particularly in an early scene where April aims her scope rifle at Daniel, as she considers whether or not to simply kill him, and later in a point-of-view shot from under a vehicle, where the marauding infected are seen as slowly shuffling feet—and an admirable treatment of the infected, who are often confused and emotional before they attack, with their faces cast down, covered by hair, but then seen in lingering close-up after death, reinforcing their lost humanity (one slow pan down the corpse of an elderly lady reveals what appears to be dog shit on her shoe). [UPDATE: Kris R Bird was kind enough to let me know that the substance was actually leaves.]
Shot in two weeks, and self-financed on a micro budget, which is hardly an issue (though the barbed wire perimeter barely looks up to the task of keeping out sheep, let alone hoards of infected crazies), the production team of Mullaney and producer/co-scripter/cameraman Kris R Bird (who together created promos for Drive-By Argument and Cosmic Rough Riders), demand a lot from their audience, which is refreshing in an age where the horror film seems designed to evoke nothing beyond revulsion, and while this may leave their debut struggling to find an audience, it shows immense promise, and adds another strong, intelligent team to the new league of British horror auteurs.
Sandra Louise Douglas as April
The Kingdom of the Fairies (1903)
Alternate Titles: Le Royaume des fées (French title); Fairyland; or, the Kingdom of the Fairies (US title); Wonders of the Deep (UK title).
Country: France
Length: 16’26” / 1,080ft.
Black and White
Production Company: Star Film
Mise en scène: Georges Méliès
Based on: La Biche au bois (The Doe in the Forest—1865), by the Brothers Cogniard (or La Biche au bois, pièce féerie en 1 acte, mêlée de couplets (1826) by Nicolas Brazier, Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche and Jean-Baptiste Dubois).
Cast: Georges Méliès (Prince Bel-Azor), Marguerite Thévenard (Princess Azurine), Bluette Bernon (Aurora).
Synopsis: The announcement of the betrothal of Princess Azurine and Prince Bel-Azor, is interrupted by a witch, who curses the Princess and later, with her minions, carries her away on a chariot of fire. With the aid of the Fairy Godmother Aurora, the prince gives chase, and after a shipwreck, is helped by Neptune to locate the witch’s castle. The Princess is rescued, the castle destroyed and the witch thrown over a cliff in a barrel.
Review: Star Film # 483–489. Méliès’ big production of 1903 thankfully still survives in its hand-colored form. Mme Thulliers and her team of girls were responsible for coloring each frame—each girl was assigned a different color—and they provided this service for the majority of the French film industry. The result is well worth the effort, as this is one of Méliès’ most sumptuously designed productions. The flaming chariot that carries away the princess, and the undersea journey to Neptune’s court, are particularly impressive, and the triumphant return of the prince and princess is a rare example of a scene shot outdoors at the Montreuil studio.
While the film is widely reported as being based on either the stage works, by the Brothers Cogniard (performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in 1845), or Nicolas Brazier, Pierre-Frédéric-Adolphe Carmouche and Jean-Baptiste Dubois (performed in the same theater in 1826), sources also mention the story by Marie-Catherine le Jumel d'Aulnoy (1650/1–1705)—who first coined the term ‘fairy tale’—there seems to be very little similarity between the stage works (which are possibly related) and the story. Raymond Knapp, in The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (Princeton University Press, 2005), mentions that an 1865 revival of the Cogniard piece by Hervé, includes ballet sequences for “sea creatures set in an underwater grotto.” It seems likely therefore that the fairy tale and the play have no link (in the fairy tale, the princess is turned into a doe), and this film is based solely on one or other (or both) of the stage works.
Godzilla Meets the Castro
A chance to meet the original master of disaster in San Francisco this August 21–23, when Haruo Nakajima, the original man in the big green suit, will visit the Castro Theater as part of the "Godzilla and the Monsters of Mass Destruction!" weekend.
The event is organized by Shock It To Me: San Francisco's Classic Horror Film Festival, and August Ragone, author of the excellent book Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters (Chronicle Books, 2008), and there will be five double bills of original Toho epics showing on the Castro's huge screen.
Tickets will be available at the Castro Theatre box office or through ticketweb.com. Prices will be announced soon at shock-it-to-me.com
Real to Reel: The Death Ray
Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Laboratory, circa 1900.
Ever since 2nd century reports of Archimedes using a heat ray to destroy ships at the Siege of Syracuse, the idea of a massive, controlled force raining down death and destruction has compelled science fiction authors. HG Wells’ Martians wreaked havoc with their heat rays, and the death ray became a staple for ‘B’ movie and serial villains such as Fu Manchu and Ming the Merciless.
It's perhaps surprising, then to discover that from the 1920s through to the 1950s, the death ray, in various forms, was the Holy Grail of weapons development. Spurred by the increased threat of air power following World War I, many claimed to have developed such a weapon, but none managed to prove it.
From Nikola Tesla’s ‘teleforce’ charged particle beam device, to Harry Grindell Matthews’ controversial death ray, some of the finest scientific minds on the planet toiled to develop the ultimate weapon. No million-killing device was developed, but an awful lot of small creatures died in the process.
Death Ray Time Line
1899: Nikola Tesla’s experiments in Colorado Springs cause the local electric company’s generator to cease functioning.
1907: In a letter to The New York Times, Tesla claims that he has built a device capable of “…projecting wave energy to any particular region of the globe.”
1908: On June 30, an explosion flattens 500,000 acres of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Siberia. One theory posits that this was caused by Tesla’s experiments.
Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his Death Ray.
1924: May 20, The New York Times reports that Harry Grindell Matthews, has invented a “diabolical ray.”
May 28, The New York Times runs a story claiming that the Russian engineer Grammachikoff has developed an electromagnetic invention to destroy airplanes.
May 29, The New York Times again: “The inventors of a ‘death ray’ multiply every day.” The names of Professor TF Wall of Sheffield University, England, Prior and Raffe, also from England, and Herr Wulle, ‘chief militarist’ of the Reichstag are mentioned.
June 9, Time magazine reports that “Death Ray” Matthews has turned down £1,000 from the British Air Ministry to prove his invention, and fled to France ahead of an injunction from his backers.
September 5, Edwin R Scott, an inventor from San Francisco, claims he was the first to develop a death ray.
1928: On June 3, The New York Times reports that Dr Graichen of the Siemens Halske Electric Company in Berlin has created a death ray capable of destroying human life.
c1930: The US Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground offers a reward to anyone capable of killing a tethered goat with a death ray, and the British Air Ministry offers £1,000 to anyone using a death ray to kill a sheep at 100 yards.
1934: The July 23 issue of Time magazine and September’s Modern Mechanix report that Dr Antonio Longoria of Cleveland, Ohio has invented a death ray that kills rabbits, dogs and cats instantly, turning their blood to water.
Robert Watson-Watt is asked by the British Air Ministry to look into the feasibility of the death ray. They are unable to prove its worth, but the research leads them to the invention of radar.
1935: February, in Liberty magazine, Tesla discredits the physical possibility of a death ray, but claims that his teleforce invention would have the ability to “Destroy anything, men or machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles.”
August, Modern Mechanix states that French scientist Henri Claudel’s “Rays of Death” will “kill any living thing at a distance of 10 kilometers.”
1936: February, Professor Harry May of England presents Alpha the Robot and a Death Ray Machine at the San Diego Exposition
May 19, The Cornell Daily Sun reports that Henry Fleur of San Francisco, being sued by investors, for failing to deliver his death ray, holds a home demonstration for the judge and jury, and is acquitted after killing a snake, a lizard, and some termites.
1940: February, Popular Science, reports that Dr Longoria had destroyed his death ray “for the good of humanity.”
September, The New York Times reports that Tesla’s teleforce ray is ready, and could be deployed in three months, at a cost of $2,000,000.
1943: January 8, Tesla’s death in New York is reported. Destitute, he was still working on his teleforce weapon – the government seizes his papers, with J Edgar Hoover declaring them top secret.
1946: Dr Albert F Murray reveals that, during the war, he was asked by the British National Defense Research Committee to research the death ray. On December 2, Time magazine reports that he is to continue his work for the US government.
1957: Dr Vladimir Gavreau and his team in France discover the possibilities of infrasonic weapons.
2004: Raytheon is granted an FCC license to demonstrate its Silent Guardian “less-than-lethal directed energy aplication”, aka the Pain Ray.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925
Death Ray Movies
The Death Ray, GB, 1924; “documentary” with Harry Grindell Matthews.
Laughing at Danger, USA 1924; with Richard Talmadge.
Death Ray (Luch Smerti), USSR, 1925; with Sergei Komarov.
The Mask of Fu Manchu, USA, 1932; With Boris Karloff.
Murder at Dawn, USA, 1932; with Jack Mulhall.
Chandu the Magician, USA, 1932; with Bela Lugosi.
The Whispering Shadow, USA, 1933; with Bela Lugosi.
The Vanishing Shadow, USA, 1934; serial with Onslow Stevens.
The Phantom Empire, USA, 1935; serial with Gene Autry.
The Lost City, USA, 1935; serial with William ‘Stage’ Boyd.
Murder by Television,USA, 1935; with Bela Lugosi.
The Invisible Ray, USA, 1936; with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi.
Sky Racket (aka Flight into Danger), USA, 1937; with Herman Brix.
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, USA 1938; serial with Buster Crabbe.
The Fighting Devil Dogs, USA, 1938; serial with Herman Brix.
Flight to Fame, USA, 1938; with Charlie Farrell.
Adventures of Captain Marvel, USA, 1941; serial with Tom Tyler.
Superman, USA, 1941; animated short with a mad scientist, seemingly based on Tesla.
Spook Louder, USA, 1943; short with The Three Stooges.
The Great Alaskan Mystery, USA, 1944; serial with Milburn Stone.
King of the Rocket Men, USA, 1949; serial with Tristram Coffin.
Dick Barton at Bay, GB, 1950; with Don Stannard.
Atlantis, the Lost Continent, USA, 1961; with Anthony Hall.
The Secret of Dr Mabuse (Die Todesstrahlen des Dr Mabuse), West Germany/France/Italy, 1964; with Peter van Eyck.
The Brides of Fu Manchu, GB, 1968; with Christopher Lee.
Death Ray (Il raggio infernale), Italy, 1967; with Gordon Scott.
Death Ray 2000 (aka TR Sloane of the Secret Service), USA, 1979; with Robert Logan.
Kamikaze, France, 1986; with Michel Galabru.
Tesla and the Bell Boy, USA, 2008; with Laurence Cantor.
Further Reading/Sources
Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World, “Part 1 – Looking Backward; 3. Death Rays to DVDs”; David Hambling. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006.
Airminded: Airpower and British Society, 1908–1941 (mostly). “The Death Ray Men”.Website
The Death Ray: The Secret Life of Harry Grindell Matthews; Jonathan Foster. Website
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Alternate Titles: Le Voyage dans la lune (French title); A Trip to Mars (US title)
Country: France
Length: 12’46” / 845ft.
Black and White
Budget: 10,000 francs
Production Company: Star Film
Mise en scène: Georges Méliès
Based on: Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune, 1865), and HG Wells’ The First Men in the Moon (1901),
Camera: Lucien Tainguy
Cast: Georges Méliès (President Barbenfouillis), Victor André, Henri Dalannoy, Delpierre, Farjaux, Kelm, Brunnet, Jehanne D’Alcy, Bleuette Bernon (Phoebe), Lallemand (navy officer), dancers from the Théâtre du Châtelet (navy girls), acrobats from the Folies Bergères (Selenites).
Synopsis (with chapter headings from Méliès’ outline—my comments in italics):
1. The scientific congress at “The Astronomic Club”. The astronomers are gathered in their observatory; President Barbenfouillis enters and lays out his plans for a trip to the Moon.
2. Voting on the trip. The pages. Farewell. After some dissension, the plan is approved and the Professor selects Nostadamus, Alcofrisbas, Omega, Micromegas and Parafaragamus to accompany him, they change and exit.
3. The workshops constructing the projectile. The crew visits the construction and Micromegas falls into a vat of nitric acid.
4. The foundry. The blast furnaces. The casting of the Gun. The crew moves up to the roof and watch as molten metal pours into the mould.
5. The Astronomers board. Following a naval greeting.
6. Loading the Gun. Navy girls push the shell into the breach of the gun and wave at the crowd.
7. The Monster Gun. March of the navy artillery. Fire!!! Saluting the flag.
8. The Moon approaches. Using a similar effect to the one Méliès utilized on The Man with the Rubber Head (1901).
9. Right in the eye. One of the most famous scenes in cinema history.
10. The fall to the moon. Earth light. The shell lands, the astronomers disembark, and watch as the Earth rises.
11. The Plain of Craters. Volcanic Eruption. As the astronomers explore, an explosion throws them to the ground.
12. The dream. The comet. The Great Bear. Phoebe. The double stars, Saturn. Tired from their exertions, the crew sleep, but celestial beings are not happy with the intrusion and Phoebe causes snow to fall.
13. The Snowstorm.
14. 40° below zero. Descent into a lunar crater. Waking up freezing, the astronomers seek shelter under the surface.
15. In the interior of the Moon. The grotto of giant mushroom. In this strange new environment, one of the astronomers plants his umbrella in the ground, only to see it transform and grow into a giant mushroom.
16. Encounter with the Selenites. Heroic battle. Strange creatures appear and threaten the crew, but are dispatched with the blow of an umbrella, however the team is soon outnumbered.
17. Prisoners!
18. The Kingdom of the Moon. The Selenite Army. On his throne, inset with living stars, the Selenite king holds court, however President Barbenfouillis breaks free and kills the king.
19. Flight.
20. Wild pursuit. The astronomers run away, and kill more of the Selenites.
21. The Astronomers reunite with the Shell. Departure from the Moon. The President heroically pulls the shell over a cliff to launch it back to Earth, with one Selenite attached.
22. Vertical Drop in Space. This and the following two scenes happen in rapid cuts unusual for the time.
23. On the open sea. An outdoor scene Méliès shot while on vacation in Normandy.
24. At the bottom of the ocean. A scene filmed in a fish tank.
25. The Rescue. Return to Port. A two-dimensional model shot.
26. Great triumphant procession.
27. Crowning and decorating the heroes of the trip. The astronomers are crowned by the mayor, and the Selenite is paraded in chains and beaten with sticks.
28. Procession of the navy and firefighters.
29. Unveiling of the commemorative statue. The statue depicts Barbenfouillis standing triumphant with his foot crushing the moon (with the shell in its eye). The statue reads “Science” and “Labor Omnia Vincit” (”Hard Work Conquers All”).
30. Public rejoicing.
Review: Star Film #399–411. Méliès’ most celebrated work is a mélange of Verne and Wells, as well as a parody of French colonialism and in a career loaded with superlatives, this the first true science fiction film, is Méliès’ crowning achievement, though he didn't share that opinion, and was quoted as saying: ”…it was considered my masterpiece—I don’t agree.”
Considerably more ambitious than anything else being made at the time, the film was also something of a turn of the century blockbuster, a budget of 10,000 francs meant that the rental fees for the film where a then astronomical 560 francs for black and white, and 1,000 francs for a hand-colored version, with the US market paying $126.75 (very roughly $2,500 in today’s dollars). The French market was convinced by free showings that proved the worth of the enterprise, but Méliès was less fortunate in the USA, where pirated copies distributed by Edison (stolen by a London representative) and Siegmund Lubin (under the title: A Trip to Mars) meant that he never saw a penny – initially flattered by the success, he would open a US office the following year, to protect his copyright. The first purpose-built movie theater in the USA, Thomas Lincoln Tally’s Electric Theater in Los Angeles opened in spring 1902, and its early success was due to screenings of A Trip to the Moon.
It's ironic that the only surviving version of the film until recently, appears to have been one of these bootlegs, which ended after Scene 25. Thankfully the missing celebration scenes were found in a barn in France in 2005, and are now available on DVD.
As well as the source novels, Méliès was likely influenced by the stage success of Adolphe d’Ennery and Jules Verne’s production Voyage à travers l’impossible, which was staged 97 times in Paris from 1882 to 1883, and an unofficial operetta adaptation of the Verne novel, Le voyage dans la Lune, by Jacques Offenbach, which ran first in 1876 and was revived at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 1877. Chapter VI of Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography by Albert A. Hopkins, details the effects produced for an illustrated lecture named “A Trip to the Moon”, that had been popular in Berlin, and included a scene showing “The phenomena of earthlight and sunlight upon the moon”, which may have influenced Scene 10.
One of the pleasures of Méliès more ambitious works, is the discovery of subtle references that, while striking to contemporary viewers, may be lost on an audience watching the films over a century later. The negative response of the heavens to the intruders from Earth in Scene 10 (Saturn was known in mediaeval times as the god of justice), and the Astronomers' attacks on the Selenites, echo the disillusion with rampant colonialism felt in Paris following the revelation that the Voulet-Chinoine Mission of 1899, designed to unify French territories in West Africa, had ended in the slaughter of thousands. It's also worth noting that Phoebe, one of Saturn's moons, had been the first satellite discovered by photographic means in 1899.
Even the names of the expedition group are deep with meaning: President Barbenfouillis (which translates as ”messy beard”) may be a simple parody of Verne’s hero, President Barbicane of the Baltimore Gun Club, but other members of the crew show elements of parody and homage: The original Nostradamus predicted man’s travel to the moon, Alcofrisbas is taken from the fact that François Rabelais wrote his satirical fantasy Pantagruel under the nom de plume Alcofrisbas Nasier), Omega is possibly a reference to Camille Flammarion’s apocalyptic 1893 novel Omega: The Last Days of the World (La Fin du Monde), and Micromégas is a reference to Voltaire’s 1752 short story of that name about a giant from the star system Sirius visiting Earth. Parafaragamus has no known derivation, but is a name Méliès would use again in 1906 in The Mysterious Retort/Alchimiste Parafaragamus ou la cornue infernale).
None of this takes away from from the sheer enjoyment that A Trip to the Moon still provides and the knowledge (detractors’ attacks on Méliès primitive approach to film-making notwithstanding) that this was produced months before Edwin S Porter fired a gun at the audience in The Great Train Robbery (1903), a film generally regarded as the first example of narrative in cinema.
Watch on DVD
Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913). Flicker Alley; DVD Region 1.
The Movies Begin – A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894–1913. Kino Video; DVD Region 1.
Watch on YouTube: Le voyage dans la Lune, Méliès, 1902 (with French commentary, full version but projected too fast, hence the short running time).
Watch on YouTube: Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight (Video) (based on A Trip to the Moon, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who went on to direct Little Miss Sunshine).
Further Reading/Sources
A Trip to the Movies: Georges Méliès, Filmmaker and Magician (1861–1938); Paolo Cherchi Usai (editor). International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House/Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine/Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1991.
Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès; John Frazer. GK Hall & Co., 1979.
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque Française, 2008.
French Film Directors: Georges Méliès; Elizabeth Ezra. Manchester University Press, 2000.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974.
George Méliès' A Trip to the Moon: Influences of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells & Others; Steve Joyce. Web site available here: www.silentsf.com/Project_Melies/index.html
Magic: Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions; Including Trick Photography; Albert A Hopkins. Munn & Co., 1897 (available through Google Book Search): http://books.google.com/books.
"Spectacular Attractions: Film in All its Forms"; Dan North, has an excellent shot-by-shot commentary here.
See Also
Excursion to the Moon (1908), remake by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé Frères
The First Men in the Moon (1919)
From the Earth to the Moon (1958)
First Men in the Moon (1964)
"From the Earth to the Moon" (1998) the documentary series features a reconstruction of Méliès’ production, with Tchéky Karyo and Tom Hanks.
