Directed by pioneering magic man George Melies, A Trip to the Moon (1902), is a technical achievement by being the first. It shows us what was going through turn of the century minds as it applies to space travel and what the Moon looks like. What can you say about a film that started a whole genre and pretty much launched all film-making processes found today? Without Georges Melies' "trick" films, we may not have the advances in film-making that we have today. His excellent knowledge of framing and set design, influenced many after him. Not only is it a very old representation of film as it applies to film history, but it also is a great representation of history itself and what men in the early 20th century envisioned in our future.
The most interesting part about this film is the fact that 12 years after the release of this film, Melies was chased out of his motion picture studio in France by the military during WWI and by 1938 was a penniless magazine stand clerk. Added with the uncanny accurate look into the future, such as the splashdown in the ocean of the capsule and the ships coming to rescue it, the film has a magic to it even for 1902 and yet the man who created it was as human as the rest of us. The film has many abstract ideas throughout, which really makes the viewer question about what Melies was thinking. What is the significance of the astrological symbols on a lot of the magician-like clothing? Why something as primitive as a giant gun for a launcher and a giant bullet for their vehicle is among such wonderful futuristic landscapes?
8.9 (A- MyGrade) = 9 IMDB
The most interesting part about this film is the fact that 12 years after the release of this film, Melies was chased out of his motion picture studio in France by the military during WWI and by 1938 was a penniless magazine stand clerk. Added with the uncanny accurate look into the future, such as the splashdown in the ocean of the capsule and the ships coming to rescue it, the film has a magic to it even for 1902 and yet the man who created it was as human as the rest of us. The film has many abstract ideas throughout, which really makes the viewer question about what Melies was thinking. What is the significance of the astrological symbols on a lot of the magician-like clothing? Why something as primitive as a giant gun for a launcher and a giant bullet for their vehicle is among such wonderful futuristic landscapes?
8.9 (A- MyGrade) = 9 IMDB