Film Classics Codexery

A Trip to the Moon

A 1902 French science-fiction trick film by Georges Méliès.

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The film is often described as the first science fiction film due to its pioneering use of themes of scientific ambition and discovery.[1] Georges Méliès, who acted as Professor Barbenfouillis and the Moon, directed the French silent film A Trip to the Moon.[2]

Making and release

Méliès began filming in May 1902 and finished in August of that year, selling prints to French distributors immediately.[3] The film cost 10,000 to make and took three months to complete, making it Méliès's longest and most complex film at the time.[4] Much of the unusual cost was due to mechanically operated scenery and Selenite costumes made from cardboard and canvas.[5] From approximately 1897 to 1912, hand-colored prints were made by Élisabeth and Berthe Thuillier's coloring lab in Paris, employing two hundred women.[6]

The film was a pronounced success in France, running uninterrupted at the Olympia music hall in Paris for several months.[7] Méliès sculpted terracotta prototypes for the heads, feet, and kneecap pieces, then made plaster moulds; a mask-making specialist, likely from the Maison Hallé firm, used these to produce cardboard versions.[5] Color prints were advertised at a higher price than black-and-white versions for a small percentage of Méliès's films.[6] Méliès never received most of the profits from the popular film in the United States because of rampant film piracy.[8]

What the cited sources add

The Silent Era account notes that it had been thought no original hand-colored copies survived until a nitrate print was recovered in Spain in the mid-1990s.[9] The same article notes that each exhibitor was free to choose whatever music they wanted, which legitimizes combining a 1902 film with a 2011 score.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Creed, "Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema", Academic Monographs, 2009, p. 58; Fischer, "Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895–1998", McFarland, 17 June 2011, p. 9; Dixon, "A Short History of Film", Rutgers University Press, 2008, p. 12; ; Margot, "Journey Through the Impossible", Prometheus Books, 2003, p. 13; Abel, "The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896–1914", University of California Press, 1998, p. 70; ; Parkinson, "100 Ideas That Changed Film", Laurence King Publishing, 2012, p. en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; ; ; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miller, "Special Effects: An Introduction to Movie Magic", Twenty-First Century Books, 2006, p. 15; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Morrissey, "Méliès, carrefour des attractions; suivi de Correspondances de Georges Méliès (1904–1937)", Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2014, p. 177–188 (here 183); ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Yumibe, "Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism", Rutgers University Press, 2012, p. 71–74 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Abel, "The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896–1914", University of California Press, 1998, p. 70 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "A Trip to the Moon" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Bennett, "A Trip to the Moon", Silent Era. facts only, no text reused. silentera.com
  10. Bayer, "Le Voyage dans la lune de Georges Méliès par Serge Bromberg", Format Court, 26 May 2011. facts only, no text reused. formatcourt.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article A Trip to the Moon (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Films directed by Georges Méliès

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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