Released 1903
French
Silent, black and white
14 minute run time
Directed by Georges Melies
Starring: Georges Melies, Victor Andre, Bleuette Bernon
(watched via Landmarks of Early Film dvd from Netflix)
Do you ever wonder what it would have been like to see movies back in the very beginning, when they were so exciting and new and everything audiences saw was amazing to them? Before special effects cost millions of dollars and before every story had been done at least once before? I wish sometimes that I could have seen film in its infancy. It must have seemed so miraculous and bizarre and beautiful and frightening. Especially a film like A Trip to the Moon.
The story starts with a bunch of crazy looking wizards (which Boyfriend insisted were scientists but they were wearing robes and pointy hats so I'm going with wizards) who decide they are going to the moon. They build a giant bullet and a giant gun, and then climb in the giant bullet and shoot themselves into space. They crash into the moon (who looks a little irritated) and then bounce around and look at things and exclaim alot and then fall asleep. Later they go exploring in this awesome Willy Wonka-ish cavern and run into some creepy looking moon-men who attack them. Luckily the moon-men explode when hit with umbrellas, so the wizards are able to escape. To get back to Earth they fall off the edge of the moon and land in the ocean.
It sounds crazy and it kind of is, but its also pretty awesome. There are costumes and sets and actors and special effects and a story with a plot and action and suspense and everything really that the big budget films of today have. Just on a much smaller, black and white scale. I was impressed and I've seen the likes of the Lord of the Rings and Transformers and Avatar (which I'm only really mentioning because of the budgets and the special effects, NOT because I find all of those films to be great and remarkable films *cough cough* Avatar is overrated *cough cough*).
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