The title of Georges Méliès’Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) is usually given the English translation of A Trip to the Moon, the word “trip” being an apt one when the lunar voyagers discover a landscape of giant mushrooms and crab-clawed inhabitants similar to the Selenites in HG Wells’ The First Men in the Moon (1901). I linked to a copy of this film years ago but these shots are from the recently reissued colour version, a print of which was discovered in 2002. The new version also includes a previously lost scene at the end. The soundtrack is by the French group Air. The more time elapses, the stranger these films seem. Queen Victoria had only been dead a year when this one was made; some of the young women here may have lived long enough to see the Apollo missions.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• A Trip to Mars
• Lunation: Art on the Moon
• Somnium by Steve Moore
• Blood on the Moon
• Mushrooms on the Moon
• Filippo Morghen’s Voyage to the Moon
You of course are familiar with Martin van Maerle’s illustrations on which supposedly the movie is more or less inspired?
For some easily digested historical background, and an all round good film, may I recommend ‘Hugo’.
Sander: Yes, I know those illustrations but I’ve only belatedly realised that he was also the same artist responsible for some very strange erotic illustrations! I know the latter from one of the Taschen collections:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Martin_van_Maële
Andy: I still haven’t seen Hugo. I was hoping to buy it on Blu-ray but the only copies seem to be in 3D which my eyes (being permanently misaligned) won’t ever see. Looks like I’ll have to settle for a DVD.
[Martin van Maële] was also the same artist responsible for some very strange erotic illustrations!
There’s a Rops vibe going on there.
Turns out that Georges Méliès was also a talented painter.