• Newsletters

Site search

  • Israel-Hamas war
  • 2024 election
  • Supreme Court
  • Winter warming
  • Animal welfare
  • What to watch
  • All explainers
  • Future Perfect

Filed under:

How Georges Méliès’ films are still influencing cinema, more than 100 years later

The filmmaker’s spirit of adventure is the subject of a VR Google Doodle.

Share this story

  • Share this on Facebook
  • Share this on Twitter
  • Share this on Reddit
  • Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: How Georges Méliès’ films are still influencing cinema, more than 100 years later

A scene from Georges Méliès‘s 1902 film A Trip to the Moon

If you’ve ever watched a science fiction movie, or one that uses special effects, then you owe a debt of gratitude to Georges Méliès, the subject of today’s Google Doodle and one of the few people who truly deserve to be called a “visionary.”

One of cinema’s most important pioneers, Méliès worked in an age when the medium was changing rapidly a nd when the whole world was obsessed with scientific discovery, explorations, and expeditions to the furthest reaches of the planet. So it’s fitting that a Doodle created in another age of fast-paced cinematic change — our current time — honors him by using some fancy technology of its own.

Méliès, born in 1861, was an innovator par excellence, experimenting with effects in his films that blew people’s minds in an era when film itself was still startling to many people. Employing things like time-lapse photography, multiple exposures, dissolves, pyrotechnics, theatrical machinery, and more, he dazzled his audiences. It looked like magic. (You can see some of these effects on the Doodle’s background page .)

Méliès was working around the turn of the 20th century, a time of burgeoning scientific exploration and big dreams about the future of mankind. The filmmaker tapped into those through his experimentation with effects, and through stories he told tales of discovery.

Méliès’s most famous film is probably Le Voyage dans la Lune ( A Trip to the Moon ), from 1902. It’s a work of science fiction, inspired partly by stories by people like Jules Verne. In the almost 13-minute film, a group of space explorers travel to the moon, encounter a tribe of strange beings, capture one, and return to Earth. Méliès himself played the crew’s leader, Professor Barbenfouillis.

Méliès returned to that idea of being an explorer again and again in his movies, including 1904’s The Impossible Voyage , in which a group of explorers undertake an epic voyage to the center of the sun. And on May 3, 1912, Méliès released À la conquête du pôle (which translates to The Conquest of the Pole ). The full film is 44 minutes long, and it pokes sly fun at the then-recent South Pole explorations of Roald Amundsen, with effects that give the whole story a magical feel.

Inspired by Méliès’s yearning for discovery and fascination with exciting new technologies, Nexus Studios, the creators of the Doodle, decided to try their hand at one of today’s most interesting burgeoning cinematic technologies: virtual reality and immersive 360-degree video. Bringing those two effects together, they incorporated some of the filmmaker’s favorite trick photography moves — multiple exposures and disappearing subjects among them — to make a short film called Back to the Moon , in homage to Méliès’s 1902 movie.

To watch the film in its full virtual reality splendor, you’ll need a mobile device (or one of Google’s virtual reality devices ) and the Google Spotlight Stories app, available on Google Play or in the App Store .

Or you can watch it as a simple video below. If you click on the film as it plays, you can drag it around for the full 360-degree experience.

Will you help keep Vox free for all?

At Vox, we believe that clarity is power, and that power shouldn’t only be available to those who can afford to pay. That’s why we keep our work free. Millions rely on Vox’s clear, high-quality journalism to understand the forces shaping today’s world. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

melies lune voyage

Next Up In Culture

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

McConnell waves in front of a podium, with Trump and Kavanaugh in the background at the White House.

How Mitch McConnell broke Congress

In this photo illustration, the Reddit logo is seen in behind a silhouette of a person typing.

A poster’s guide to who’s selling your data to train AI 

Trump looking stern with an American flag behind him.

Trump’s immigration policies are his old ones — but worse

Wilder dressed in a purple coat as Wonka sits among oversize lollipops and mushrooms.

The less-than-magical Willy Wonka event, briefly explained

melies lune voyage

The Supreme Court just handed Trump an astonishing victory

Map shows higher than normal temperatures in most of the North Atlantic.

This chart of ocean temperatures should really scare you

  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews

A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon. A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon. A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.

  • Georges Méliès
  • Jules Verne
  • Victor André
  • Bleuette Bernon
  • 300 User reviews
  • 95 Critic reviews

A Trip to the Moon

  • Prof. Barbenfouillis
  • (uncredited)

Victor André

  • Astronomer - Nostradamus
  • Lady in the Moon

Brunnet

  • Astronomer- Alcofrisbas
  • Captain of the Rocket
  • Astronomer - Micromegas

Farjaux

  • Astronomer - Parafaragaramus
  • Astronomer - Omega
  • Officer of the Marines
  • Parade Leader
  • Georges Méliès (uncredited)
  • Jules Verne (uncredited)
  • H.G. Wells (uncredited)
  • All cast & crew
  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

The Great Train Robbery

Did you know

  • Trivia After finishing work on the film, Georges Méliès intended to release it in America and thereby make lots of money. Unfortunately, Thomas A. Edison 's film technicians had already secretly made copies of it, which were shown across the US within weeks. Melies never made any money from the film's American showings, and went broke several years later. Edison made a fortune from it.
  • Goofs When the umbrella is growing in the mushroom garden, the edge of the first Selenite, off camera to the right, can be seen waiting for his cue to enter. He may not be visible in all versions of the film.
  • Alternate versions Turner Classic Movies (TCM) showed a 12-minute, narrated version of this film, with a musical score. The narration was in English with a French accent, but easily understood.
  • Connections Edited into The Monitors (1969)
  • Soundtracks Astronomic Club (2011 Version) Written by Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin Performed by Air

User reviews 300

  • skrstenansky
  • Oct 12, 2021
  • October 4, 1902 (United States)
  • A Trip to Mars
  • Méliès Studios, Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France (filmed in studio)
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro
  • FRF 30,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

  • Runtime 13 minutes
  • Black and White

Related news

Contribute to this page.

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

  • See more gaps
  • Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Production art

Recently viewed

  • The Collection
  • The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art

Crop your artwork:

 alt=

Scan your QR code:

Gratefully built with ACNLPatternTool

On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune)

Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 692

Although A Trip to the Moon was the first motion picture to depict a lunar voyage, Méliès had little interest in the actual mechanics of space travel. Instead, he portrayed the moon as the dreamlike setting for a dazzling series of special effects.

A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune), Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (French, Paris 1861–1938 Paris), Digital video transferred from restored 35mm film, hand-colored, silent (with new score by Jeff Mills), 14 min.

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy , you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API .

  • https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/789305 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/789305 Link copied to clipboard
  • Animal Crossing
  • Download image
  • Enlarge image

Artwork Details

Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item

Title: A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune)

Artist: Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (French, Paris 1861–1938 Paris)

Medium: Digital video transferred from restored 35mm film, hand-colored, silent (with new score by Jeff Mills), 14 min.

Dimensions: Dimensions variable (approx. 55" screen)

Classification: Variable Media

Credit Line: © 2011 Lobster Films / Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma / Fondation Technicolor pour le Patrimoine du Cinéma

Rights and Reproduction: Excerpt : A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès - restored color version © 2011 Lobster Films / Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma / Fondation Technicolor pour le Patrimoine du Cinéma

Learn more about this artwork

The Met

Photographs at The Met

  • Collections
  • Support PDR

Search The Public Domain Review

The Public Domain Review

Le Voyage Dans la Lune (1902)

Le Voyage Dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon, in English) is perhaps Georges Méliès ' most famous film, and is considered to be the first science fiction film in cinematic history. The 12 minute film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of native moon inhabitants (known as Selenites), and return to Earth with one of them as captive. While at once a spoof of more serious science fiction, the film can also be seen as a comment on France's colonial exploits (it was at the time the world's second largest colonial power). Méliès himself plays, as was his wont, the main role of the wonderfully named Professor Barbenfouillis. When asked in 1930, Méliès cited Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon as the main influences for the film, but cinema historians have also mentioned the influence of Adolphe Dennery's stage adaption of Verne, and also H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon , a French translation of which was published only a few months before Méliès made the film. Jacques Offenbach's operetta Le voyage dans la lune (an unauthorized parody of Verne's novels) and also the "A Trip to the Moon" attraction at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, have also been talked of as being possible inspiration.

melies lune voyage

One in a set of twelve stereo cards showing scenes from Offenbach's 1875 operetta Le voyage dans la lune , circa 1885 — Source .

  • Travel & Exploration
  • The 'Other'
  • Fantasy & Adventure
  • 20th Century

Internet Archive logo

Mar 1, 2016

If You Liked This…

Hand holding envelope

Get Our Newsletter

Our latest content, your inbox, every fortnight

Postcards

Prints for Your Walls

Explore our selection of fine art prints, all custom made to the highest standards, framed or unframed, and shipped to your door.

Start Exploring

Pantagruel

{{ $localize("payment.title") }}

{{ $localize('payment.no_payment') }}

Pay by Credit Card

Pay with PayPal

{{ $localize('cart.summary') }}

Click for Delivery Estimates

Sorry, we cannot ship to P.O. Boxes.

ARTS & CULTURE

A trip to the moon as you’ve never seen it before.

One of the landmark films in cinema can now be seen in color

Daniel Eagan

Daniel Eagan

Frame enlargement from Le Voyage Dans La Lune/A Trip to the Moon

It’s one of the most famous films in cinema, a special-effects, science-fiction extravaganza that became an international sensation when it was released in 1902. Almost instantly it was pirated, bootlegged, copied and released by competing studios under different names. And for decades it’s only been available in black-and-white copies.

Now, after a 12 year project that approached a half-million euros in cost, Lobster Films , The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage , and Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma are unveiling a new version of A Trip to the Moon , “resurrected,” in the words of preservationist Tom Burton, from an original, hand-colored nitrate print. For the first time in generations viewers will be able to see the color version of the film that stunned early 20th-century moviegoers.

Le voyage dans la lune , to use its French title, is one of over 500 movies made by Georges Méliès, perhaps the first filmmaker to fully grasp the potential of cinema. The son of a wealthy shoemaker, Méliès was born in 1861. Fascinated by magic and illusions, he left the family business in 1888. Buying the Robert-Houdin theater from his widow in Paris, he developed a successful act with illusions such as “The Vanishing Lady.” Méliès was in the audience when the Lumière brothers held their first public film screening on December 28, 1895, and within months was exhibiting movies at his theater.

Méliès made his first film in November, 1896, built his own studio in 1901 and formed the Star Film brand to market his work in France and internationally. He made movies about current events and fairy tales, replicated his stage illusions on screen and developed a highly advanced technical style that incorporated stop-motion animation: double-, triple-, and quadruple-exposures; cross-dissolves; and jump cuts. More than any of his contemporaries, Méliès made movies that were fun and exciting. They were filled with stunts, tricks, jokes, dancing girls, elaborate sets and hints of the macabre.

A Trip to the Moon had several antecedents, including the 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and A Trip to the Moon , a four-act opera with music by Jacques Offenbach that debuted in 1877. Méliès may also have been aware of a theater show at the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, called A Trip to the Moon . Filming started in May, 1902. It was released on September 1 in Paris and a little over a month later in New York City.

At the time exhibitors and individuals could purchase films outright from the Star Films catalog. Color prints were available at an extra cost. Probably not too many color prints of A Trip to the Moon were ever in existence, but it came out right around that time color became a real fad. Within a couple of years, the hand-painting was replaced by tinting and stencil process, so color became more prevalent and less expensive. Several color Méliès films survive, but it was believed that the color Trip to the Moon had long been lost.

But in 1993, Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange of Lobster Films obtained an original nitrate print from the Filmoteca de Catalunya . The only problem: it had decomposed into the equivalent of a solid hockey puck. In 1999, Bromberg and Lange, two of the most indefatigable of all film historians, began to try to unspool the reel by placing it in the equivalent of a humidor, using a chemical compound that softened the nitrate enough to digitally document individual frames. (The process also ultimately destroyed the film.)

Years later, Bromberg had some 5,000 digital files, which he handed over to Tom Burton, the executive director of Technicolor Restoration Services in Hollywood. In a recent phone call, Burton described how his team approached this “bucket of digital shards.”

“What we got was a bunch of digital data that had no sequential relationship to each other because they had to photograph whatever frame or piece of a frame that they could,” Burton recalled. “We had to figure out the puzzle of where these chunks of frames, sometimes little corners of a frame or a half of a frame, where all these little pieces went. Over a period of about nine months we put all these pieces back together, building not only sections but rebuilding individual frames from shattered pieces.”

Burton estimated that they could salvage between 85 to 90 percent of the print. They filled in the missing frames by copying them from a private print held by the Méliès family and digitally coloring the frames to match the original hand colored source.

“It’s really more a visual effects project in a way than a restoration project,” Burton said. “A lot of the technology that we used to rebuild these frames is the technology you would use if you were making a first-run, major visual effects motion picture. You’d never have been able to pull this off 10 years ago, and certainly not at all with analog, photochemical technology.”

For Burton, A Trip to the Moon represents the beginnings of modern visual effects as we know them today. “Seeing it in color makes it a whole different film,” he said. “The technique involved teams of women painting individual frames with tiny brushes and aniline dyes. The color is surprisingly accurate but at times not very precise. It will wander in and out of an actor’s jacket, for example. But it’s very organic. It will never rival the way A Trip to the Moon first screened for audiences, but it’s still pretty amazing.”

A Trip to the Moon was shown at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is screening on September 6 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bromberg will be showing it at this year’s New York Film Festival , and on November 11 at the Museum of Modern Art , along “with the world premiere of my documentary about the restoration. An absolute must!” as he wrote in an e-mail. Was this his most exciting restoration? “One of them, of course,” he answered. “The best one is the next one!!”

Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Daniel Eagan

Daniel Eagan | | READ MORE

"Daniel Eagan is a film writer and author of America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry . "

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound

Georges Méliès and his Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination

Georges Méliès as the magician in The Vanishing Lady (Star Film, 1896)

Born in 1861 in Paris, Georges Méliès  started his artistic endeavors as a child. By the age of ten,  he was building his own stage sets for marionette shows and drawing caricatures of his teachers. Méliès continued his artistic and theatrical pursuits, including studying magic, despite his father wanting him to work solely in the family shoe business. In time, the family business was successful enough that Méliès was able to buy his own Paris theater: Théâtre Robert-Houdin.

By 1888, he began staging performances as a comedic magician and illusionist in the theater. At the time Méliès also worked as a caricaturist and was associated with Les Arts Incohérents, a socially and politically minded group of avant-garde artists who often employed caricature as a form of social satire.

Méliès’ foray into cinema started when he attended the public unveiling of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe camera on December 28, 1895. The Lumière brothers used the camera to shoot and present their first film Sortie de l’usine Lumière de Lyon ( Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory ). Méliès was so taken by the film screening that he attempted to purchase a Lumière camera, but to no avail. Ever a man of ingenuity, Méliès paid a visit to English engineer and instrument-maker Robert Paul who was making his own version of Edison’s Kinetoscope camera. Méliès purchased one of Paul’s cameras and augmented it to both shoot and project film.

Magic trick from Le Illusion (1907) by Georges Méliès.

By the spring of 1896, Méliès was showing films at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin. That same year he started creating, producing, and showing his own work. His work runs the spectrum of film genres including: comedy, fantasy, science fiction and even early horror. Méliès style is very theatrical, comedic, and includes elements of magic and illusion.

Méliès employed theatrical stage techniques and settings. To his theatrical bag of tricks, Méliès added cinematic editing, special effects, and double exposure to achieve his signature style. This became a style more aligned with caricature, satire, and early modern art than with artistic realism and the actuality film style of the Lumiere brothers, which was also popular at the time. Actuality films use footage of real events, places, and things without the narrative message of documentary films, which actuality films historically precede.

Drawing depicting the workings of a giant puppet used in Georges Méliès' film Conquest of the Pole (1912).

In his most famous work Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) , Méliès borrows from novels by Jules Verne ( De la Terre à la Lune ( From the Earth to the Moon) ) and H.G. Wells ( The First Men in the Moon)  to create what is arguably the first science fiction film. Voyage  employs a type of visual collage that pulls from various sources and contemporary ideas of what the surface of the moon and its inhabitants might look like.

Georges Méliès, Trip to the Moon (1902). Image courtesy of Flicker Alley and the Blackhawk Films Collection.

In From the Earth to the Moon  (first published in 1865), Verne references various accounts of the moon including astronomical observations of the time. In particular, Verne mentions Edgar Allan Poe’s lunar adventure Hans Pfaall and Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made …, also known as the  Great Moon Hoax of 1835 . Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made … was written by Richard Adams Locke  for the Sun Newspaper, New York in which it was reported that life was discovered on the moon. In From the Earth to the Moon,  Verne describes the moon as craggy, mountainous and snowy, having crevices and craters, and containing a subterranean world.

Verne’s influence on Le Voyage dans la Lune  can be seen in  Méliès’ depiction of the lunar surface, the appearance of snow, the presence of a subterranean world, and most notably with the cannon and the rocket sent to the moon.

The crew of two aeronauts in Wells’ The First Men in the Moon  (first published 1901) crash landed their rocket as did the crew in Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune . While at first the moon appeared grey and lifeless, the crew in Wells’ novel soon witnessed rapid plant growth with the arrival of sunlight. Lunar life, known as Selenites, were encountered by the crew in The First Men in the Moon . The Selenites were dressed in what Wells described as crustacean like armor and lived in a subterranean world, which is very similar in description to the lobster like quality of Méliès’ Selenites.

Concept drawing of a Selenite by Georges Méliès for A Trip to the Moon.

After feasting on a mushroom like fungus, the two aeronauts in The First Men in the Moon  were discovered by the Selenites, captured and taken underground. Similar to Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune  the aeronauts fight the Selenites and escape. While it is clear that Méliès borrowed much from Verne and Wells, he had his own creative take on the fantastic voyage to the moon.

When his films fell out of vogue, Méliès briefly returned to theater before financial failure forced him to quit the industry entirely, at which time he turned to selling toys at the Gare Montparnasse train station. He eventually retired to a home for cinema veterans. His surviving work was rediscovered in the 1930’s and he has now taken his place as one of the earliest pioneers in cinema.

To find out more about how astronomy inspired Jules Verne and the 19th century imagination checkout the Infinite Worlds section on the  Fantastic Worlds  exhibition website.

To learn more about Georges Méliès, Smithsonian Libraries is hosting a film screening and lecture, “ Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination”,  on Thursday, March 3, 2016 from 5:30-7:30 PM in the Warner Bros Theater at the National Museum of American History.

Melies film

Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction 1780-1910   exhibition is running through February of 2017 in the Smithsonian Libraries’ exhibition gallery located on the first floor (One West) of the National Museum of American History 14th St and Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC.

Categories: Events Exhibitions

  • fantastic worls
  • Science fiction

Dear Smithsonian:

I am writing a book pertaining to aliens in science fiction film and would like to use the image you have reproduced in this article in my book. It is Melies’s drawing of a selenite: https://blog.library.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/39088003494929_MeliesVoyage_Selenite.jpg I’m thinking that the image is in the public domain by now, but I would like to quote part of your article along with it, and cite the article as my source. I look forward to hearing from you! Thank you for your consideration,

Maureen Foster

Hi Maureen,

Thank you for your inquiry! The image comes from a 1945 book about Melies. The full catalog record is here: http://s.si.edu/2pAJGaa . It’s possible that the image is still protected by copyright. You are welcome to quote our blog post or exhibition website in your work, with credit.

Erin Rushing Outreach Librarian

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

  • Enseignement

Le Voyage dans la lune de Méliès, film-clé d’une œuvre prolifique

Publié le 17/10/2012 • Modifié le 12/11/2019

melies lune voyage

Il n’y a pas de Lumniz à gagner car tu as déjà consommé cet élément. Ne t'inquiète pas, il y a plein d'autres contenus intéressants à explorer et toujours plus de Lumniz à gagner.

le voyage dans la lune

Le Voyage dans la lune

Poétique, fantastique, Le Voyage dans la lune , réalisé en 1902, est devenu le film emblématique de Georges Méliès .

Ce long métrage pour l’époque (environ 14 minutes), dont l’idée est venue à Méliès du roman de Jules Verne De la terre à la lune , raconte l’expédition lunaire de six astronomes. Ils embarquent à bord d’un obus, propulsé par un canon géant. Arrivés sur la lune, ils assistent à un « lever de terre », rencontrent la population autochtone, les Sélénites, qui les font prisonnier. Ils s’en échappent, retournent sur terre avec un Sélénite accroché à leur vaisseau-obus et sont accueillis triomphalement.

Les prouesses techniques et trucages, avec un tournage en tableaux successifs filmés en plan fixe (30 scènes), permettent un récit fluide et compréhensible sans besoin d’intertitres pour ce film muet, simplement accompagné de musique lors de sa projection. La féerie et le fantastique du Voyage dans la lune , baptisé premier film de science-fiction de l’histoire du cinéma, regorgent presque à chaque plan. Les astronomes portent des robes étoilées et des chapeaux pointus, ils combattent avec des parapluies les Sélénites qui disparaissent de l’écran comme par magie (le fameux truc de Méliès, la technique de l’incrustation). Les Sélénites sont joués par des acrobates des Folies-Bergères, les étoiles par des filles des ballets du théâtre du Châtelet. Toute la machinerie des dispositifs techniques, ainsi que les décors, le maquillage et les costumes, sont conçus sur le « lieu de tournage », aux studios de Montreuil.

L’image la plus célèbre du film, qui en fit l’affiche et est devenue l’icône du génie artistique de Méliès, est celle de l’obus planté dans un œil de la lune : l’alunissage « en plein dans l’œil ».

À sa sortie en France le 1 er septembre 1902, le film connaît un énorme succès et assoit la renommée internationale de Méliès. Il fut l’objet de plagiat, de contrefaçons et de longues batailles juridiques aux Etats-Unis sur la propriété des droits.

Aujourd’hui, le spectateur peut voir le film dans sa version noir et blanc, mais aussi dans sa version couleur d’origine (un coloriage au pinceau image par image). Georges Méliès, après sa ruine, avait détruit la plupart de ses négatifs et l’on pensait qu’elle pouvait y avoir sombré. En 1993, une copie couleur est retrouvée à la Filmoteca de Catalunya, à Barcelone, dans un état de décomposition critique. Une restauration complète est engagée, pilotée par Lobster Films, et fut diffusée en avant-première mondiale au festival de Cannes en 2011.

Ce contenu est proposé par

France Télévisions

  • Je crée mon compte
  • Je me connecte

melies lune voyage

Gagne des Lumniz, passe de niveau en niveau et révèle tes talents en remportant des défis !

melies lune voyage

Rejoins-nous dans la communauté Lumni pour encore plus de fun ! Si tu n’en as pas, crée ton compte : c'est gratuit .

melies lune voyage

  • Festival Reports
  • Book Reviews
  • Great Directors
  • Great Actors
  • Special Dossiers
  • Past Issues
  • Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to Senses of Cinema to receive news of our latest cinema journal. Enter your email address below:

Senses of Cinema logo

  • Thank you to our Patrons
  • Style Guide
  • Advertisers
  • Call for Contributions

melies lune voyage

‘Chromatic Frankenstein’s Monsters?’: Restoration, Colour and Variants of Georges Méliès’s Voyage dans la Lune

The pioneering films by Méliès have been described by Tom Gunning as creating an aesthetic of astonishment, emblematic of the ‘cinema of attractions’. (4) This classification emphasises the ‘thrill of display’ at the spectacle of early cinema, aspects that are crucial to the presentation of illusion in the trick films developed by the magician Méliès. (5) André Gaudreault notes the degree of self reflexivity in Méliès’s early cinema, suggesting that the aim was to encourage spectators to ‘appreciate the illusion’ by recognising the camera’s presence and the potential audience. (6) Gaudreault writes that “he interpellates both the camera and the spectator into the text as he acknowledges their existence through direct address”. (7) This is a cinema of active display. In the performance of the ‘trick’ effect, Méliès both shows, performs the illusion and conceals the filmic devices that create the illusion. However, whilst the perception of Méliès’ cinema as part of the attractions tradition is clear, it is also important to acknowledge the depth, range and intermediality of his oeuvre .

Matthew Solomon describes Trip to the Moon as an intermedial film, a film created from a matrix of influences, one that continues to inspire new forms of the moving image. (8) The original version was inspired by the 1865 Jules Verne novel De la Terre à la Lune ( From the Earth to the Moon ). Méliès reveals that:

“The idea of A Trip to the Moon came to me when I was reading a book by Jules Verne called From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon . In the book, the humans could not land on the moon … so I imagined, in such a way that I could put together some arresting and amusing fairytale images, show the outside and inside of the moon, and some monsters who might live on the moon, add one or two artistic effects (women representing the stars, the comets, … snow effects, the bottom of the sea). (9)

Other influences include the HG Welles novel The First Men in the Moon which was published in France in the same year as Trip to the Moon was filmed. And, according to Laurent Mannioni, it is quite possible that news of the exhibit at the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo, called Trip to the Moon (1901) would have influenced Méliès. (10) The turn of the century inspired visions and imaginings of voyages to distant places. Trip to the Moon is a film that imagines a voyage to the moon 67 years prior to the first landing. This was the first film to imagine the earth from the moon and to offer the reverse perspective of the moon from the earth. It is also the first example of science fiction on film. However, the mythology that surrounds Méliès suggests that he is central to a range of ‘firsts’. According to the catalogue that was produced to accompany the release of the 2011 version of Trip to the Moon , Méliès was the first director to design and equip a film studio (his ‘image capture theatre’), to create storyboards for his film productions and to develop editing techniques (particularly appearance/disappearance, substituting, multiplying effects) to facilitate special effects and trick photography with moving images. (11) Whilst Trip to the Moon became the most recognised of all of Méliès’s films, Elizabeth Ezra reveals that “At first, however, he had difficulty persuading fairground exhibitors to buy it because of the high price resulting from the film’s lavish production costs; so he lent the film to exhibitors free of charge for a single showing, confident that its popularity with audiences would convince exhibitors that they would recoup his asking price”. (12) At this stage in the emerging film industry, individual films were sold to exhibitors directly. Ultimately, Méliès is credited as inventing the cinema of ‘show and entertainment’, but the impact of his influence extends across the production, distribution and exhibition sequence. The display of Méliès’s innovation becomes a key consideration in the process and affect of restoration.

The restored version of Trip to the Moon was screened on a hot night in the Piazza Maggiore, officially opening the 2011 ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ film festival in Bologna, Italy. (13) The audience recognised the significance of this second public screening of the restoration. With all seats filled and very little standing room left in the Piazza, I stood at the back of the square, watching a film that I had seen in black and white many times, but this time it hit the screen in the beautiful watery, translucent colours characteristic of the effects of hand painting in early film and photography. There was such a thrill in the crowd that although I was standing, I felt like I was jumping. I certainly wasn’t standing still. This resonance was in response to the colours of Trip to the Moon . As early as 1929 Kodak identified the potential for colour to affect the emotions. Whilst Kodak developed Sonochrome tints like Rose Doree to ‘quicken the respiration’ and Peachblow for ‘brief, joyous moments’, (14) twenty years before, Méliès applied translucent aniline dyes to create spectacle and to provoke sensation in nascent cinema. Writing on early cinema, Tom Gunning notes that “colour helped fashion a culture of sensationalism, based in sensual and emotional intensity and dedicated to inciting desire rather than orderly behaviour”. (15) This impression of colour represents the convergence of two pivotal cinematic moments. Evidence of the old and new can be detected across the surface and secreted in the details of the projected image. By maintaining traces of the old within the new medium, the 2011 colour restoration reveals the duality of innovations in celluloid and digital technologies, an acknowledgment of their respective historical moments, but as I will argue, ultimately indicating their inextricable connection.

At its foundation, Trip to the Moon was built on black and white celluloid nitrate film stock . It was filmed on orthochromatic celluloid, a medium that in 1902 was consolidating its ability to register subtle gradations in the spectrum from black to white. This film stock necessitated a careful arrangement of the mise-en-scène in shades from the deepest black to the lightest white. The proscenic space was artificially arranged to reflect the ability of celluloid to register tonal variations and contrast. Méliès notes that in creating the set: “painting is done only in shades of grey, using all the intermediary grey colours between pure black and pure white … Scenery in colour comes out very badly. Blue becomes white, reds and yellows become black, like greens; all the effect is destroyed”. (16) Traces of the aesthetic produced by orthochromatic stock and early cinematographic equipment are evident in the red lips of the man in the moon rendered black, in the effect of natural lighting, in the focus on the forces of movement towards the centre of the frame and in the painted sets. Each of these aesthetic aspects exemplify Méliès’s work to register the range of colours that intersect between black and white on orthochromatic film stock.

Trip to the Moon is built on frames that were originally hand cranked through early cinematographic technology that was developed to accommodate the 16 to 18 frames per second necessary to achieve the flicker fusion threshold to produce the illusion of movement in projection. In early film, the disjuncture between filming and projection speeds often results in an impression of movement that might appear frenetic. These traces of early film technologies remain in the 2011 version, notably in the rapid gestures and movements of the scientists led by Professor Barbenfouillis (Georges Méliès) as they gather to discuss the voyage at the observatory, and later as they explore the subterranean level of the moonscape in a non scientific, accelerated pace. The green Selenites in Trip to the Moon also jump and twirl in fast motion. However, movement in the reconstruction is not limited to the gestures and shifts of characters. The aesthetic wavers between the beautiful soft focus of the coloured celluloid print and the higher definition and perceptual clarity of the digital print. The arched windows of the observatory oscillate between a blue opacity and a grey transparency. Often the outlines of the windows become blurred producing soft outlines, but occasionally the image snaps back into focus revealing a definition more common to the digital medium. The film also contains evidence of damage in the barely discernable vertical patterns that waver at the edges of the frames. This patina brings a hint of movement to an otherwise still setting shot with a fixed camera. Walls pulse slightly, backgrounds quiver almost imperceptibly. It is within this latest incarnation of Trip to the Moon that traces of the history of cinema reveal another level of kinetic movement. These connections between the early and later technologies expose the potential for celluloid and digital to combine to create new, vibrant aesthetics, new forms of early film.

The colours of Trip to the Moon expose traces of history and provide another level of animation. The colours flicker, quiver, transform and frequently escape the outlines of some of the objects that they had originally intended to colour. This irregularity uncovers the effects of time and it marks the process of hand painting on celluloid. The catalogue that accompanies the restoration of Trip to the Moon notes that “[a]ll his known colour films present image instability typical of hand-colouring and brush strokes are clearly visible”. (17) The coat worn by one of the scientists in the observatory tableaux wavers from blue to green and then returns to blue. The colour then bleeds into the scientist’s wig. Inside the factory, the rocket itself transforms from anodised pink to terracotta orange. In one sequence, the watery blue of the outfits worn by the team of young female marines preparing the rocket for launch is rendered in a single horizontal brushstroke. The single stroke of translucent blue connects the women, highlighting their uniformity and choreographed movement. It also reveals traces of the artist and her process of painting miniature frames. Just as the sequence ends and the women wave their hats to signal the imminent departure of the rocket, a barely perceptible pause in the movement within this frame reveals the effect of quite extensive damage to the print. Noticeable in this blurred image are incomplete patches of colour and damage that is revealed in the blue and yellow paint that has shrunk from their outlines. Noticeable also is the dissolution of definition as the translucent blue appears to sit on top of the celluloid, clearly revealing the intervention of time on the colour of this celluloid print. Without any clear traces of the restoration process, this image ruptures the narrative flow and offers a momentary indication of the extent of the damage in this version of Trip to the Moon .

A catalogue for Star Films, Méliès’s film company, lists the sale price of a black and white print of Trip to the Moon as US$130, but hand painted versions of Méliès’ films were considerably more expensive than black and white prints. (18) The Parisian workshop of painter and colourist, Elisabeth Thuillier and her team of young female painters hand painted all of the prints that Méliès required in colour. Thuillier notes that:

“I coloured all of M. Méliès’ films. The colouring was done entirely by hand. I had 200 people employed in my workshop. I passed my nights selecting and sampling colours. In the daytime, the workers applied the colours according to my instructions. Each specialized worker took responsibility for one particular colour. There were often over twenty (specialized workers) …”. (19)

The process of hand painting was intricate and arduous. Each of the young women working for Mme Thuillier was in charge of painting a single colour across the 13, 375 frames that comprised Trip to the Moon . The blue brushstroke that links the marines reveals traces of one of Mme Thuillier’s team of young painters. Hers is one element of the palette that includes translucent blue, pink, green, orange, red and yellow, a spectrum designed for a specific audience. The aniline dyes were transparent and luminous, allowing for the creation of spectacle and an illusion of depth. Aniline dyes also created artificial scenes that supported the fantasy of the attractions cinema. Méliès notes that, “as important films are often coloured by hand before being shown, it would be impossible to colour real photographed objects, which, if they were bronze, mahogany, red, yellow or green cloth, would become an intense black, and thus without transparency, and it would be impossible to give them the translucid tone necessary for projection”. (20)

Applied colour techniques involved the creation of particular colour ranges for specific territories. Film historian Niccola Mazzanti reveals that it was common practice to create a specific palette and design for a territory, “[a]ltering colour schemes was only one of the many elements shaping an overall strategy of adaptation to foreign markets”, adding that when more than one print of a film distributed in different countries is discovered, the variation in colour schemes can differ dramatically. (21) The 2011 version of the 1902 print was coloured for a Spanish audience. Whilst the red and yellow flag raised at the launch of the rocket specifically mirrors the national colours, the entire palette was designed for Spain. Colour is used to create emotional impact, to direct attention and to inspire a sense of wonder in Trip to the Moon . Explosions on earth are painted red to designate the heat at their core. Anti-naturalistic colours are used to designate the unfamiliarity of the lunarscape. Explosions on the surface of the moon are sometimes blue, but at other times a hybrid of pink and green. Colour also creates wonder through contrast. The buttery yellow of the asteroid is foregrounded against the deep green background of the lunar sky. In the subterranean lunarscape, tree trunks are rendered in a deep pink whilst mushrooms are burnt orange. The illusion of cascading water is painted in a startling blue. The sky turns bright pink when the scientists attempt to escape. The moon creatures – Selenites – are painted green, a stereotypical colour for the imagination of an alien.

In 1999 Trip to the Moon became part of an exchange deal organised by Anton Gimenez, director of the Filmoteca de Catalunya and Serge Bromberg (22) of Lobster Films. Trip to the Moon exchanged for The Golden Spider (1909) by the Catalan filmmaker Segundo de Chomón. De Chomón and Méliès were initially collaborators, but later became antagonistic and competitive inventors. De Chomón’s An Excursion to the Moon (1908) is one of the many films that replicates Trip to the Moon . In early film culture it was common to replicate and revise films that had proven popularity. The restoration of Trip to the Moon was a long and complex process. Serge Bromberg narrates the transfer: “The deal was done, and some time later, we received a case containing the precious relic. Inside there was a 35mm film on which we could distinguish some of the first film images framed by the small perforations characteristic of early films”. (23) But this coloured version of Trip to the Moon was extensively damaged. Cellulose nitrate film is chemically unstable and particularly prone to brittleness attributed to ‘vinegar syndrome’. Duration and exposure deteriorates the filmic material, often resulting in shrinkage and ‘channelling’, a buckling that is produced by the acetic acid released from celluloid over time. Bromberg notes that “Unfortunately our round reel looked more like a ring of wood, such was the extent to which decomposition had transformed the originally supple film into a rigid, compact mess”. (24) The coloured version required extensive restoration. Conservation of this print was at stake in the processes of restoration. Fragments of frames were excised, restored and reassembled one by one. The instability of the celluloid, the distortion of the imagery and the decay of frames necessitated extreme care. The damage was so extensive that traditional restoration methods of wet gate optical printing and copying onto celluloid were not possible. Consequently some of the techniques used in this restoration seem anything but modern. The fused images on the reel were prised apart using a flexible card and, as Bromberg defines it, ‘infinite patience’. (25) Bromberg accounts for the difficulties in this way:

“We had two options. Either we tried to give the film back its original flexibility so that it could be duplicated, or we photographed each image using an animation stand, but at the risk of breaking the film. The first solution required chemical treatment which would render the film pliable for a short period, but which would unfortunately accelerate its decomposition subsequently. The second solution would lead to numerous tears and would be delicate and long”. (26)

Damaged fragments of Trip to the Moon

In an account of the restoration in American Cinematographer , Robert S. Birchard details that, “for the most part, the film was fused only along the perforated edges of the film, and with infinite patience and a small, flexible card, it was possible to peel the film apart from itself”. (27)

Ultimately the restoration process included the photography of individual frames, chemical treatments and the flexible card amongst a range of other approaches. Bromberg says: “The copy was sent to Haghefilm laboratory, where it was place[d] for several weeks under a glass bell, subjected to vapours of a chemical mix developed by the Archives Français du Film ”. (28) Beneath the glass bell, enshrouded by chemicals, time and duration impacts on the film once more, but in this instance, the life of the film is both activated as images clarify with exposure to the chemicals and then reduced as the material of the film succumbs to the vapours. Bromberg recalls that “every time a few images were recovered, we’d photograph them before they turned to dust, which is a consequence of using the chemicals. Basically there were only a few days to photograph the stills, which can be considered the ‘scan’ of the original source”. (29) Almost a third of the film was saved onto an inter-negative film. Bromberg says that the other half of the film was “given back to us in formless fragments that the prolonged stay in chemical vapours had made even more brittle”. (30) The surviving images were photographed using a three million pixel digital camera.

The digitisation process took place from 2002 to 2005 in various locations and within differing technical environments. Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange used images from the black and white fine grain master positive to replace those that were damaged beyond repair in the coloured version: “Images that were missing, lost or damaged were taken from the black and white version, then colourised”. (31) The black and white version was also used as a guide for the timeline of the original film. “To replace most of the material missing in the colour footage, the team turned to a black and white nitrate print owned by Madeleine Malthete- Méliès, granddaughter of the pioneering filmmaker”. (32) In this restoration project, celluloid was used as scaffolding and support for the development of the digital copy. Temporal disparities presented further issues for the restorers. The original version of Trip to the Moon was hand cranked at approximately 14 frames per second, whilst the restored digital version needed to be standardised to 24 frames per second. The use of celluloid to restore celluloid is logical, with complimentary materials helping to identify frames and sequences in a coherent temporal order. However, the transition from celluloid to digital effectively produced variant data sets. This use of multiple formats presented many issues for conservators like Tom Burton from the Technicolor Foundation For Cinema Heritage. (33) Frames from Trip to the Moon were photographed and scanned in various forms including TIFF, TGA and JPG files, each of varying resolutions. (34) Burton reveals that “What we received from Lobster Films were digital files in various formats and in several resolutions … Some frames were captured on a digital camera, frame by frame, and some were captured on a digital scanner from short sections of the 1902 original that could be copied on Haghefilm’s step printer in Holland”. (35) Frames from the film differed significantly. “Much of the image data represented broken frames and shattered pieces of frames, and there were even several versions of some shots, with the files differing greatly in colour, density, size, sharpness and position”. (36) Burton says that ““de-flicker” processing was applied to help balance the massive frame-to-frame and intra-frame density variations resulting from the physical deterioration of this old photochemical element”. (37) Colour ‘pre-grade’ processes were used to resolve variations and to bring colour and density variables towards conformity. The challenge for Tom Burton was to integrate the disparate frames, shots and sequences into the digital version of this film. The common format selected for the restored, digitised version of Trip to the Moon was DPX files. The Digital Picture Exchange format was selected to represent the density of each colour channel of a scanned negative film in an uncompressed ‘logarithmic’ image. This new file format introduces a range of potential differences from the original. Significantly, the range of colours available is more extensive than what was used in the original. Restoration and cleaning enhances the depth and clarity of detail in the frames and achieves a definition that exceeds the scope of the original.

The difficulty of restoring the colours of this 1902 print is corroborated by Burton who reveals that in the restoration of Trip to the Moon , “we eye-matched individual colour frames and short frame sequences, which we’d reformatted as DPX files, to the dupe neg in a digital editing environment. In this editorial conform we were able to see for the first time exactly what original colour material existed, what condition it was in and which material was missing entirely”. (38) Resolve’s colour correction platform was then used to cohere the range of “wildly diverse colours and densities of the various capture sources into reasonable proximity with one another”. (39) Burton reveals “we used a palette of restoration and visual-effects-specific digital platforms, including Digital Vision, Phoenix/DVO, MTI and After Effects. Our restoration team rebuilt shattered frames into new full-frame re-creations of their original state. The black and white material was then digitally painted to replicate the original colour frames where the original colours had not survived”. (40) It is not only the techniques, but the process that was designed to replicate the original state of Trip to the Moon . At Technicolor, the digital painters used small frames, replicating the original conditions for Mme Thuillier’s team of painters. Electronic brushes, frame ratios and the colour palette were designed to mirror the conditions of applying colour in 1902. “This helped them establish, for the final painting process, the look of the hand-painted colours sometimes overflowing and sometimes not quite filling the image”. (41) What might have been mistakenly dismissed as the effects of damage, is reconceptualised as the beautiful imperfection of hand painting and deliberately restored in the 2011 version.

Film restoration is a complex task. Firstly, the colours evolve, change and perhaps also deteriorate with every projection of light and with prolonged storage. As such, the original intensity of the painted colours cannot be known definitively. Whilst Pathé developed ‘colour codes’, details printed onto the leader of each film, in anticipation of the need for restoration in the future, this was not applied to hand painted or stencilled films produced prior to 1910. Paolo Cherchi Usai delineates the issues for coloured film restoration:

“Our knowledge of colour in silent films is largely derived from a treasured misconception that we are accustomed to accept without question: tinting, toning, colouring by hand or stencil, first and second Technicolor are loosely translated in the duplicates struck by preservation laboratories into systems radically different from the original techniques. Projection equipment has changed, too. Light sources bear no resemblance to those employed in the early 20 th century”. (42)

Usai writes that, “From a cultural standpoint, colour film preservation (as much as film preservation in itself) is a necessary, interesting mistake”. (43)

The film historian Niccola Mazzanti reveals the difficulty of restoring early film colours when he writes that “for most of the history of coloured films, and most significantly for the films of the second period that made such an extensive and complex use of colour, we have nearly no testimony about how specific colours came into the world, and by whose decision”. (44) Importantly in terms of the shift from celluloid to digital, Mazzanti notes that “[t]echnologies designed for (mechanical, chemical, or digital) reproduction of colour might feature a stronger or weaker component of indexicality; they might display a more or less effective ‘synchronicity’ of colours in space (the rose is red, and its stem is green) and even more importantly in time (the ever changing hues of a sunset)”. (45) Mazzanti argues that the processes that are used routinely to duplicate original coloured prints struggle to reproduce the original colours faithfully. (46) He writes that “some colours are reproduced more faithfully than others, with the result that the overall chromatic balance (within the frame when hand or stencil colouring is used, or between shots when different colours and processes are applied) is distorted to an extent that has led some authors … to define these processes as ‘simulations’ rather than ‘duplications’”. (47) Perceiving digital restorations of early films like Trip to the Moon as simulations acknowledges the importance of the original print in the development of the digital variant. It also accounts for those perceptible traces of digital and celluloid in the hybrid aesthetic in the 2011 variant.

Across the history of cinema, simulated variants have been created by producers, distributors, directors, censors or restorers from a ‘family’ of film elements (prints, negatives, copies) “a version implies a deliberate choice and concerns a number of elements”. (48) However, a variant applies to a single film element – in this case the recently discovered coloured print, and can be the result of an accident, or a deliberate act. Mazzanti writes that “variants can derive from accidents. For example, parts of a print can decompose, some or all of the colours can fade or decay, inconsistencies or errors can occur in the production process. Secondly, variants can derive from the deliberate act of a collector or an archivist”. (49) The recent simulated variation of Trip to the Moon arises from both the fortuitous rediscovery of this important film, and the intense and difficult process of its reconstruction using hybrid analogue and digital materials and technologies. Opportunity and science coalesce in this restoration of Trip to the Moon . This is particularly true when we recognise the 1902 version as both evolving and devolving materials. With intervention taking the form of restoration rather than conservation, the print declines over time, but is then re-made with digital hues that might not have existed in 1902. The range of colours available, the technologies used in the restoration results in the colours of the 2011 simulation exceeding that of the original. As Mazzanti warns, prints derived from films that use differing colour schemes have the potential to create “chromatic Frankenstein’s monsters”. (50)

The simulation of colour is the result of the evolution of the moving image within digital culture. New media technologies allow for histories built on simulations, multiplication and the dissemination of variants.Usai defines “the integrity dilemma” in relation to cinema, writing that “the lack of an ‘aura’ of uniqueness in the traditional photographic film gives no incentive to treat the copy in question as an artefact”. (51) For Usai, “[t]he transition from analog photographic motion images has both exacerbated and contradicted the perception of a lack of uniqueness in cinema – an art and culture of reproduction”. (52) In contrast, Solomon highlights the “obsession for completeness” in contemporary film culture that was identified by Usai, but he notes that because film culture relies on prints and variations, this concept would have been alien to early filmmakers. (53) Solomon points to the impossibility of complete films, noting that “the very notion of a definitive version of any early film is rather anachronistic given that films were sold as “semi-finished products” over which their producers had largely relinquished subsequent control”. (54) This is compounded in the early culture of exhibition where the practice allowed exhibitors to cut, edit and revise the film for their own projection purposes, intervening in the material of the film itself. Solomon adds that early films were “projected at different speeds, combined with various types of performance, and sometimes even coloured and reedited by exhibitors”. (55) This lack of protocol meant that different version of Trip to the Moon were claimed and exhibited by filmmakers other than Méliès. The Complete Catalogue for “Star” Films notes that a New York paper advertised Trip to the Moon by four or five different filmmakers, “each pretending to be its creator”. (56) The Catalogue begins with the pronouncement: “[i]n opening a factory and office in New York we are prepared and determined energetically to pursue all counterfeiters and pirates. We will not speak twice, we will act”. (57) It is clear in the visible branding of Star Films even within the mise-en-scène of Méliès’ films themselves, in the documentation and credits of his films, in the establishment of offices in London, Barcelona and New York, in the creation of catalogues as well as in establishing a clear profile of the auteur, that copyright was a challenge that presented itself to Méliès for the duration of his career.

The most well known and circulated black and white version of A Trip to the Moon is not the definitive or complete form of this canonical film. Solomon argues that the Museum of Modern Art Film Library’s version has been struck from an incomplete print of the original film. (58) The 2011 version included an extra three seconds discovered in a 1929 nitrate dupe negative. However, the MMA’s version was missing more than three seconds from the end of the film. The most popular iteration of A Trip to the Moon closes with the rocket descending to earth, landing underwater and then being towed into shore by a boat. These ‘final shots’ appear to provide resolution for the narrative by returning the astronomers to earth safely. The ending of the more complete variant of the film shows the rocket, now branded with the ‘Star-Films’ logo paraded through the streets, accompanied by the astronomers returning to a celebration, receiving oversized ‘moon’ medals and unveiling a sculpture dedicated to Professor Barbenfouillis. Importantly, the sequence displays the Selenite who was last seen clinging to the rocket ship as it left the moon. The Selenite is captured, chained and hit with a stick as it is paraded in front of the crowd on a leash. This ending is one that highlights and cements the colonialist theme. (59) Segundo de Chomón’s variant, Excursion dans la lune ( Excursion to the Moon , 1908) offers an alternative resolution. Solomon cites this ending as one that concludes not with an ironic celebration of lunar conquest, but with the formation of a couple. He writes, “[o]ne of the astronomers runs off with a dancing moon-maiden and brings her back to earth in the damaged capsule. Instead of being displayed and beaten like the captured moon-dweller in A Trip to the Moon , she is welcomed to earth with open arms and quickly betrothed to the astronaut with whom she returns”. (60) The wild, battered alien of Trip to the Moon is replaced as an exotic love interest in de Chomón’s film. These numerous variants (coloured, black and white, edited, lost, found, remade, duplicated, transformed and inspired) provoke a reconsideration of the insistence on the chronological evolution of films across history in favour of film history as present in contemporary releases, offering an alternative imagination of the end of cinema.

Laura Mulvey’s recent work proposes an understanding of new and old cinema based on an interweaving and intermingling of past and present. (61) She posits that new technologies open up new forms of temporality. Mulvey argues that the transfer of celluloid into a digital format allows for complex temporalities receiving greater visibility. (62) In the cinema, time asserts an indexical presence, the single moment sits alongside the insistence of temporal duration. We can see the freeze frame of that single moment where the celluloid is most apparent in Trip to the Moon as that single moment in a procession of shots and sequences. Mulvey writes, “the ‘then-ness’ that appears within the old celluloid image brings the history that belongs to it palpably into the present, translated onto an easily accessible form”. (63) The dynamic interrelationship between past and present is rarely depicted more clearly in film that has been restored and transferred to the digital format. The momentary pause that exposes the traces of orthochromatic film, the colours that escape their outlines display how, in Mulvey’s words: “different kinds of temporality and relations between times become more clearly apparent as the indexicality of celluloid is translated onto and manipulated through new media. (64) In response to the anxiety about the end of cinema, a more accurate and nuanced understanding of film history becomes possible as, “[t]he perception of change shifts away from an imaginary pattern derived primarily from the register of time, a foreclosing of the past, a hastening towards the end of an era, into an imaginary pattern derived from space, of threshold, of holding past and future suspended in an uncertain present”. (65) The indebted, inextricably linked relationship between past film history, and digital imagery is evident in the visibility of processes of restoration as well as in the traces of celluloid deliberately retained in variants.

The 2011 restoration of Trip to the Moon is not the definitive version, rather it is one of numerous variants that have appeared since 1902 and will continue to circulate into the future. This film is part of a constellation of old and new, celluloid and digital, unique originality and simulated variant. Importantly though, the technologies used in the restoration process result in images that exceed the celluloid print, certainly in comparison to the state of the film when it was discovered. On digital restoration, Usai writes that

“the tools available to film preservation professionals in the digital domain have enabled them to achieve what would have seemed impossible with traditional photographic chemical methods: colour, contrast and image stability can be greatly improved (more faithfully to the original, or, problematically, even beyond) with techniques previous unimaginable in the ‘analog’ laboratory”. (66)

The 2011 version of Trip to the Moon exists in the state that is ‘more’ or ‘beyond faithful’ to the original, but this is not only evident in the simulated variant. Concurrent with the restoration was the re-popularisation of Georges Méliès through Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011). In this context sequences from the short film are excised, digitised and projected in three dimensions. Reduced and with the addition of depth and definition, Trip to the Moon becomes a special effect, provoking wonder for the characters within the diegesis and in the theatre. In this variation the film is spectacular and astonishing. Mulvey’s work addresses this celluloid/digital connection, one that we can see in the quotation of Trip to the Moon in Hugo. Mulvey writes: “[a]s the flow of cinema is displaced by the process of delay, spectatorship is affected, re-configured and transformed so that old films can be seen with new eyes and digital technology, rather than killing the cinema, brings it new life and new dimensions”. (67) Instead of an end to cinema, Gaudreault and Marion perceives cinema as ‘born twice’. Here the material base is extended by digital technologies and, as they write: “[a]ll of a sudden the ‘medium’ of moving pictures is able, synchronically, to designate an entire historical, transmedial, or transtechnological constellation”. (68)

This article has been peer reviewed

Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film Essay

Méliès, one of cinema’s most essential pioneers, worked at a period when the environment was constantly changing and when the whole world was preoccupied with scientific discoveries, exploration, and excursions to the planet’s most distant corners. Méliès was a forerunner in a variety of fields. He invented stop-motion photography, for example. Furthermore, he represented his interpretations of the romantic era and neoclassicism in many of his undertakings. Méliès also developed the use of double and triple exposures, a technique that is still extensively used today, as well as fades, dissolves, and smokeballs. In an era when cinema still astounded many people, he experimented with effects in his films that rocked people’s brains (Brode, 2021). He astonished his audience with slow motion, numerous exposures, dissolving, pyrotechnics, and dramatic skill.

The film Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Journey to the Moon) is widely regarded as the first science fiction picture. Méliès’ originality as a creator reached a zenith with A Journey to the Moon, in which he employed his complete arsenal of abilities, from exquisite clothing inspired by different eras to innovative filmmaking (Brode, 2021). In the creation of costumes and the representation of popular creative trends during his period, he ultimately displayed his artistic ability. Distorted visions of outer space, complete with floating feminine characters, as well as the planets’ deities, are all surrounded by perpetual visual confusion. The film’s popularity also grew as a result of its effective use of metaphysical and anti-imperialist humor, as well as its widespread effect on laser filmmakers and its overall significance in the French cinematic culture (Brode, 2021). Through this movie, Méliès garnered significant acclaim and influenced a number of well-known directors.

Brode, D. (2021). Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents . University of Texas Press.

  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, December 28). Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film. https://ivypanda.com/essays/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-by-mlis-analysis-of-film/

"Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film." IvyPanda , 28 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-by-mlis-analysis-of-film/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film'. 28 December.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film." December 28, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-by-mlis-analysis-of-film/.

1. IvyPanda . "Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film." December 28, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-by-mlis-analysis-of-film/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film." December 28, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-by-mlis-analysis-of-film/.

  • “Voyage to the Moon”: The Fantastic Dream of Georges Méliès
  • Claude Debussy. Images for Piano. Reflets dans l’eau
  • Arts Reflection: La Reine Dans Hamlet and Portrait of Gertrude Stein
  • Michel Gondry as a Contemporary Filmmaker
  • Interviewing Methods: Types and Features
  • Painting, Cinematography, and Physics in Europe of 1895-1914
  • Zenith PM Management Change
  • Zenith School Supplies: E-Business Planning
  • Future Strategy for Arsenal FC in Business
  • The Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League
  • Cinematography: “The Spy Next Door” Movie
  • American Animation: The Golden Age Period
  • ‘1917’ by Sam Mendes: Analysis of Film
  • Movie Review: A Face in the Crowd
  • The Vector of the I Am Legend Film
  • International edition
  • Australia edition
  • Europe edition

Odysseus spacecraft lands on the moon as Nasa hails ‘giant leap forward’ – as it happened

This blog has now closed, but you can read our latest story here

  • 7d ago Closing summary
  • 7d ago Nasa and Intuitive Machines celebrate moon landing
  • 7d ago 'Odysseus has taken the moon,' says Nasa
  • 7d ago The Odysseus is on the moon...
  • 7d ago Odysseus lander close to touchdown
  • 7d ago Odysseus in position to land
  • 7d ago What's on board?
  • 7d ago Odysseus will use backup Lidar instrument during descent
  • 7d ago Odysseus set for 6.24pm ET/11.24pm GMT landing
  • 7d ago Intuitive Machines' Odysseus aims to land on the moon

Odysseus lunar lander over near side of the moon

'Odysseus has taken the moon,' says Nasa

“What a triumph,” said Bill Nelson, Nasa’s administrator in a message following the landing.

“Odysseus has taken the moon. This feat is a giant leap forward for all of humanity.”

Today for the first time in more than a half century, the US has returned to the moon. Today for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company, an American company launched and led the voyage up there. And today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA’s Commercial partnerships. Congratulations to everyone involved in this great and daring quest at Intuitive Machines, SpaceX and right here at Nasa.

Closing summary

The US returned to the moon for the first time in more than half a century, when the privately-built spacecraft called Odysseus touched down today.

Confirmation of the landing came about 10 minutes after touchdown, as flight controllers scrambled to pick up communications. “I know this was a nail-biter but we are on the surface and we are transmitting,” said Stephen Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines, the Texas-based company that designed and operated the lander. “Welcome to the moon.”

Here’s a recap of the Odysseus lander’s long journey:

Last week SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off in the middle of the US night from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, dispatching Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander on its 230,000 miles (370,000km) journey.

The lander, a 14ft (4.3 meter) hexagon-shaped craft with six legs, was aimed towards a landing at crater Malapert A, close to the lunar south pole. Odysseus is carrying a payload of six Nasa science instruments and technology demonstrations as part of the agency’s commercial lunar payload services initiative. It’s also carrying some other stuff – including 125 of Jeff Koons’ miniature moon sculptures.

From the moon’s orbit, the lander used autonomous systems to determine the best spot to land, slowing itself down as it propelled toward the surface.

There were some unexpected glitches along the way –instead of using the primary navigation sensors as planned, the lander used a Lidar instrument provided by Nasa to guide its descent. The landing was delayed so that flight controllers could patch software.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the circumstances of Odysseus’s landing. Flight controllers will work to analyze communications and learn more about the descent, and whether the Odysseus will be able to carry on and complete its lunar missions.

– Guardian staff

My colleague Richard Luscombe has more details here about Odysseus’s long journey:

The White House Office of Science and Technology has sent its congratulations:

Go Odysseus! We’re over the moon about the U.S.’ first lunar landing since 1972! Congrats to @Int_Machines and @NASA 's CLPS! As @POTUS says, "With science, hope, and vision, there's not a damn thing we can't do as a country." Welcome to the moon. https://t.co/J6K38We5wW — White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (@WHOSTP) February 22, 2024

Here again, is the moment the flight controllers confirmed landing.

Calling it a touchdown! "We're on the surface of the Moon and we are transmitting". pic.twitter.com/7YXS1e4I8E — Chris Bergin - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) February 22, 2024

More images are emerging of the control room staff in Torrance, California, as they anxiously monitored – and eventually celebrated – the Odysseus spacecraft’s journey from orbit to landing.

This frame grab from Nasa shows Scorpius Space Launch Company (SSLC) team members watching as the Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lunar lander approached the moon.

Employees of Scorpius Space Launch Company (SSLC) and their families and guests watching the landing from Torrance, California cheered as they heard news of the touchdown.

The lander used SSLC’s next-generation fuel tanks for the lunar mission.

This is a frame grab from Nasa, shows Scorpius Space Launch Company (SSLC) employees and guests reacting in Torrance, California.

Nasa and Intuitive Machines celebrate moon landing

Still, Nasa and Intuitive Machines will be celebrating the achievement.

Odysseus is the first American spacecraft to accomplish such a feat since 1972.

Your order was delivered… to the Moon! 📦 @Int_Machines ' uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23pm ET (2323 UTC), bringing NASA science to the Moon's surface. These instruments will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under #Artemis . pic.twitter.com/sS0poiWxrU — NASA (@NASA) February 22, 2024

The flight controllers aren’t done yet, of course. They’ll still work to glean more information, and confirm the circumstances of Odysseus’s landing, its current state, and whether it can achieve its objectives.

Flight controllers are still working on getting more information.

Nonetheless, it seems like Odysseus is the first American-built mission to land on the moon in more than a half century.

The Odysseus is on the moon...

“We are on the surface,” said Stephen Altemus, president and CEO of Intuitive Machines. “Welcome to the moon. Odysseus has a new home.”

Note: a previous version of this post incorrectly attributed the quote to mission director Tim Craine.

It is possible that the Odysseus has crashed… or that there’s a communication issue. Flight controllers are still trying to figure it out.

“We’re not dead yet,” was the call out from mission control.

We’re still standing by for confirmation. Controllers are going through the latest data that they’ve gotten from the lander. There’s possibly a communications glitch.

We’ve reached the expected time of landing… but waiting for confirmation.

The “hazard disturbance avoidance” process has begun. The lander is 1000m away from the surface.

The lander is making autonomous decisions about where to land. We’re less than a minute away.

Odysseus lander close to touchdown

The mission director just called out three minutes till touchdown.

There will likely be a slight delay between when the lander makes contact with the surface, and when we will get confirmation. That delay could be as little as 15 seconds or several minutes.

A reminder that there’s no human decisions being made about where to land. The autonomous system on the lander is scanning the surface for the best place to drop down.

The lander is feeding data to the scientists in the control room.

Everything seems on track so far, as the lander continues slowing itself down so that it can prepare for a vertical descent.

Most viewed

IMAGES

  1. Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon Reveals the Psychology of Film

    melies lune voyage

  2. Hollywood Shoots The Moon: 117 Years Of Lunar Landings At The Movies

    melies lune voyage

  3. Le Voyage dans la lune (Georges Méliès, 1902)

    melies lune voyage

  4. Voyage to the Moon

    melies lune voyage

  5. Georges Méliès: A Trip to the Moon & The Extraordinary Voyage

    melies lune voyage

  6. Georges Méliès, artífice del artificio

    melies lune voyage

COMMENTS

  1. A Trip to the Moon

    A Trip to the Moon (French: Le voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure trick film directed by Georges Méliès.Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and its 1870 sequel Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface ...

  2. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)

    A Trip to the Moon ( Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jul...

  3. Georges Melies

    Georges Melies, early French experimenter with motion pictures, the first to film fictional narratives. Among his landmark films are Le Voyage dans la lune (1902; A Trip to the Moon) and Le Voyage a travers l'impossible (1904; The Voyage Across the Impossible).

  4. Le Voyage dans la Lune

    Le Voyage dans la Lune est un film muet de science-fiction français écrit, produit et réalisé par Georges Méliès, et sorti en 1902.. Le film constitue la première œuvre de science-fiction au cinéma.. Le projet du film est sans doute motivé par le succès outre-Atlantique de l'attraction foraine A Trip to the Moon (en).Par ailleurs, il s'inspire des romans De la Terre à la Lune de ...

  5. Georges Méliès: how the filmmaker revolutionized cinema 100 years ago

    Méliès's most famous film is probably Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), from 1902. It's a work of science fiction, inspired partly by stories by people like Jules Verne. In the ...

  6. A Trip to the Moon (Short 1902)

    A Trip to the Moon: Directed by Georges Méliès. With Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Jehanne d'Alcy. A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.

  7. A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune)

    A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès French. 1902 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 692. Although A Trip to the Moon was the first motion picture to depict a lunar voyage, Méliès had little interest in the actual mechanics of space travel. Instead, he portrayed the moon as the dreamlike setting for ...

  8. History of film

    The following year he organized the Star Film company and constructed a small glass-enclosed studio on the grounds of his house at Montreuil, where he produced, directed, photographed, and acted in more than 500 films between 1896 and 1913. Le Voyage dans la Lune. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902; A Trip to the Moon), directed by Georges Méliès.

  9. "Le Voyage dans la Lune" George Méliès 1902 (Original ...

    This is the original version, silent and black & white.This film is available in the public domain.Le Voyage dans la Lune, alternately "Voyage to the Moon", ...

  10. Le Voyage Dans la Lun : Georges Méliès

    Star-Film. Le Voyage Dans la Lun (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès (1902) George Melies's `A Trip to the Moon' welcomes a change in film making of the twentieth century. Combined with live action as well as models, the movie tells a story about astronauts who take a trip to the moon. The moon, having a human face captures the astronauts ...

  11. Le Voyage Dans la Lune (1902)

    Le Voyage Dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon, in English) is perhaps Georges Méliès' most famous film, and is considered to be the first science fiction film in cinematic history. The 12 minute film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of native moon inhabitants (known as Selenites), and ...

  12. A Trip to the Moon as You've Never Seen it Before

    Le voyage dans la lune, to use its French title, is one of over 500 movies made by Georges Méliès, perhaps the first filmmaker to fully grasp the potential of cinema. The son of a wealthy ...

  13. Le voyage dans la lune : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming

    Le voyage dans la lune Video Item Preview ... One can be smug at how silly some of it is, but Melies was a magician by trade, with the soul of a cartoonist. Anybody who has the moon complaining about a rocket in his eye or primitive Rockettes launching a moon-bound spacecraft has to have tongue planted firmly in cheek. He was plainly out to ...

  14. Le Voyage dans la lune (1902)

    The inspiration for Le Voyage dans la lune is often credited to Jules Verne's 1865 novel De la terre à la lune (a.k.a. From the Earth to the Moon), although the encounter between the explorers and the moon-dwelling creatures in the film's second half clearly owes something to H.G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon, which was first published in ...

  15. Georges Méliès and his Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination

    Voyage employs a type of visual collage that pulls from various sources and contemporary ideas of what the surface of the moon and its inhabitants might look like. Georges Méliès, Le Voyage dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon, Star Film, 1902). Image courtesy of Flicker Alley and the Blackhawk Films Collection.

  16. A TRIP TO THE MOON: The First Sci-Film Ever Is a Journey, Indeed

    A Trip to the Moon's Ambitious Plot. A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 short film by director and writer Georges Méliès. We will dig into his history and how this ...

  17. Le Voyage dans la lune de Méliès, film-clé d'une œuvre prolifique

    Le Voyage dans la lune. Poétique, fantastique, Le Voyage dans la lune, réalisé en 1902, est devenu le film emblématique de Georges Méliès. Ce long métrage pour l'époque (environ 14 minutes), dont l'idée est venue à Méliès du roman de Jules Verne De la terre à la lune, raconte l'expédition lunaire de six astronomes.

  18. Understanding Cinema

    In "Voyage dans la Lune", director Georges Melies uses a number of editing techniques to inform the audience about how time is constructed in his picture. Melies utilizes linear chronology, cuts, and dissolves to construct time in Voyage dans la Lune. One clip from the film, the launch of the professor's shell to the moon, reflects all ...

  19. 'Chromatic Frankenstein's Monsters ...

    The restored edition of 'the original colour version' of Voyage dans la Lune (Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès, 1902/Lobster Films, 2011) opened the Cannes Film Festival to great wonder and acclaim in 2011.The one hundred and nine years separating the first screening of this famous science fiction film and its recent revision bridge the beginning and, for some film historians, the end of ...

  20. Le Voyage Dans la Lun (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges ...

    A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune), alternately Voyage to the Moon, is a 1902 French black-and-white silent science fiction film. It is base...

  21. Le voyage Dans La Lune (1902) : Georges Méliès

    Le voyage Dans La Lune (1902) by Georges Méliès. Publication date 1902 Usage Public Domain Mark 1.0 Topics Voyage dans la lune, Georges Méliès, Bleuette Bernon, Henri Delannoy Language French. Le professeur Barbenfouillis et six autres savants s'organisent pour une expédition sur la lune. Addeddate 2018-07-29 17:47:42

  22. Le Voyage Dans la Lune by Méliès: Analysis of Film Essay

    The film Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Journey to the Moon) is widely regarded as the first science fiction picture. Méliès' originality as a creator reached a zenith with A Journey to the Moon, in which he employed his complete arsenal of abilities, from exquisite clothing inspired by different eras to innovative filmmaking (Brode, 2021).

  23. Odysseus spacecraft lands on the moon as Nasa hails 'giant leap forward

    'Odysseus has taken the moon,' says Nasa "What a triumph," said Bill Nelson, Nasa's administrator in a message following the landing. "Odysseus has taken the moon.

  24. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)

    About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright ...

  25. frenchiesmith on Instagram: " A Trip to the Moon (1902) (French: Le

    0 likes, 0 comments - justsomephillygirl on February 22, 2024: " A Trip to the Moon (1902) (French: Le voyage dans la lune) Directe..."