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.
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