Le voyage dans la lune
1902/FR 14 mins Dir: Georges Melies
Based on: "De La Terre a la lune" by Jules Verne
It's quite hard to judge early films from a 2020 perspective. We're so used to what cinema is that we have certain expectations from a film. Back in 1902 most films were two minute documentaries showing everyday life. Then Georges Melies comes out with this fourteen minute sci-fi epic.
In terms of plot, it's fairly familiar to modern sci-fi fans. A professor (played by Melies) shares his plan to take a trip to the Moon and once he manages to convince his colleagues that it will work the group travel to the moon on a bullet-like rocket and encounter hostile inhabitants, the Selenites. They are captured by them but manage to kill the king and return to Earth in the ship where they are hailed as heroes.
Whether intended or not, I thought there was a theme about humans destroying nature and Europeans considering themselves better than other people. The image of the rocket in the anthropomorphic Moon is iconic and though there's a comic idea in it I think it represents the blind destruction of nature. The men happily wipe out as many Selenites as they can which feels like a metaphor of the European treatment of the colonies they conquered, something which was still very much going on at the time this film was made.
It's interesting looking at the science of the film given it shows a moon landing nearly seventy years before the first one happened. Here the rocket is essentially a bullet that is shot at the Moon through an enormous cannon. You could argue that the basic principle of a space rocket is not too dissimilar to this- an explosion launches the streamlined ship out of the Earth's atmosphere. The return journey is less accurate though with the ship being simply pushed off the Moon and gravity doing the rest.
I was surprised by how good this film looks for its date. The quality of the footage itself isn't great but the sets are really cleverly done, mixing 2D paintings with 3D objects to make a whole scene. There's also a great use of tricks from stage magic such as the Selenites dying by turning into a puff of smoke.
It's clear to see why this was such a huge influence. Suddenly films could take you to new worlds and with the imagination of some decent practical effects they could be really entertaining. I also think it's timeless and actually stands up better than many films of the 30s and 40s which feel much more dated in subject.
A fun early film that showed the world just what motion pictures could be.
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