A Trip to the Moon

2011
8.2| 0h15m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 04 September 2011 Released
Producted By: Star-Film
Country: France
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.

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Director

Georges Méliès

Production Companies

Star-Film

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A Trip to the Moon Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
mjp-56749 Georges Méliès was a revolutionary in film, and "A Trip to the Moon" is the quintessential example of his pioneering work. Unlike many films in this time period, this project has a story centered on a specific set of characters, complete with introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Essentially, what we find in "A Trip to the Moon", lays out a number of elements that we see today in modern films that lie on the more realist elements of the spectrum. You could say that this influenced later films to follow similar story patterns, but, of course, that is not at all what Méliès is truly remembered for. He is remembered most for special effects work. For instance, Georges Méliès uses cuts several times throughout this short film; he cuts from the cannon shot to the moon, he cuts from the moon to the ocean, he cuts from the ocean to the streets of a city, etc. All of these cuts were incredible special effects for the time, and they allow the story to flow fluidly and seamlessly. It showed other filmmakers what they could do to help the audience abstractly connection several frames that would, without context, appear to be unconnected. Nowadays, edits like this are so commonplace that we do not even take the time to think about them, and we have Mr. Georges Méliès to thank for that. As far as special effects work goes, we also can witness George Méliès zooming the camera in on the moon while simultaneously cutting to a different image, one of the moon with a man's face in it, paving the way for other filmmakers to use other insane special effects in later years. Additionally, Méliès makes good use of Mise en scène throughout this short film. For example, he uses the concept excellently in the scene with the cannon; the base of the cannon is positioned in the bottom left corner of the frame while the rest of the cannon naturally leads the eye to the moon, as the cannon is pointed directly at the moon. In this case, I would consider the cannon to be the dominant, and because the cannon is essentially a line, our eyes are naturally led to what lies on the ends of the line, which is the moon in this case because the other side leads to the end of the frame. Color palette is another classic attribute of a given frame composition, but Méliès did not have much to work with here because films at the time were exclusively in shades of black and white. However, there are still plenty of similar attributes that he could and did manipulate in "A Trip to the Moon". Take patterns, for instance; Georges Méliès dressed the aliens that inhabited the moon in strange, striped outfits to distinguish them from the relatively plainly dressed people from Earth. This choice of wardrobe establishes several important and useful effects: it becomes very easy for the audience to distinguish the aliens from the main characters we have been following up to this point, and it makes the aliens feel strange, distinct, and, well, alien. It allows the audience to sympathize how the main cast of characters would be feeling about the aliens in that situation. Additionally, all of what has been said of these color patterns can apply to the structure the aliens appear to inhabit, along with the other oddly dressed aliens with flowers for heads on the left side of the frame during the alien encounter. Overall, Georges Méliès short film, "A Trip to the Moon", was a film that sticks with us today because it was far ahead of its time. In an era where short films about people leaving work at a factory and clips about a train leaving the station were considered new and exciting, Georges Méliès brought to life a film with special effects, compositions, and story structures that can all be found in realist films today. That is why we do, and always will, remember Georges Méliès and "A Trip to the Moon".
SimonJack It's amusing to read so many reviews that praise this silent short film and its maker on so many points. "It's a break through." "It's pioneering." "Georges Melies was a genius." The one that's worth a good laugh is "A film ahead of its time." How many times we see or read that to describe a pioneering, innovative or new something. That always has seemed to be a put-down, however well intended. After all, pioneering, discovering, inventing, trying something new or different that works is worthy of praise outright. Melies was deserving of praise. A French pioneer in cinema, he introduced many new techniques for the craft and in the related science of cinema. But it's more proper to say that he initiated, discovered, started, refined, introduced or began those methods and changes. The time was his and he was in it. How could he be ahead of his own discoveries? So, this is a fine film short of early pioneering, with historical value. But I don't understand ratings that place it with some of the great masterpieces of cinema over the ages."A Trip to the Moon" also is a humorous film that shows how some people thought about what lay in the future of space travel. Did most people at the turn of the 20th century think there was life on the moon? Did scientists then think that a huge gun could shoot a craft into space? Another little humorous aspect is Melies' use of the chorus girls from the Folies Bergere. Even way back then, promoters were using sex appeal to sell things. One would think that the marvel of cinema itself would be enough to draw public interest. On second thought, the chorus girls might have been an addition to please the old men scientists. I'm sure it was all in fun for Melies and his crew and cast, as it must have been for the people who first saw this motion picture.
Giallo Fanatic This is one of the most important pieces of film in the history of movies. Georges Méliès was quite a wizard of special effects and he was very ahead of his time. He did a lot of comedies with odd visuals and amusing special-effects that were to be used later on in a whole lot of movies. But he is most famous for his sci-fi movies like "A Trip to the Moon", "The journey through the impossible" and "The moon at a meter" which are visionary and influential movies. "A Trip to the Moon" for example, has been referenced in an episode of "Futurama". Many film scholars also argue special-effects in this movie are very important, quoting from a website: "which some cinema scholars cite as the picture where special effects as we know them began, has a particularly important place in cinema history." I must say, Méliès was very creative and he had ideas that were quite wild in his time. I gotta say, when I watched "A Trip to the Moon" I was amazed at how ahead this movie is. This movie basically set the clichés for sci-fi movies and sci-fi series. The spacecraft that crashed onto our moon is for example very iconic (referenced in "Futurama" like I just wrote).So this movie should not be missed by any serious film enthusiast. Because Méliès wild ideas, the special effects, the ahead-of-its-time-editing, the script and the acting are great. By the way, I think Méliès was a bit of an existentialist since his movies had a variety of themes from mindless slapstick to religion to science then questioning the existence of mankind through his movies. In this movie he took an interest in science, traveling to the moon and the possibility of life in other places besides Earth. Now, those thoughts occupy many of us today but Méliès was already thinking about it before many of us were even born. That is pretty astonishing. So it isn't just a movie that is ahead of its time, it also had a director that was ahead of his time. I am so impressed if I were to make a film school, Méliès would be mandatory and any serious film lover have to watch at least 20 of Méliès movies. That's how important I think this movie is, that's how important I think Méliès is to movies, not only sci-fi movies but any movie that has special-effects in it and wild ideas in it.I myself think this movie is worth 9/10. Maybe I will rate it higher in the future, but that is how I feel now. Astonishing movie.
Leofwine_draca This twelve minute short from famed magician/film-maker George Melies is, quite simply, a spellbinding experience. Due to the lack of dialogue, the film tells its story via a series of pictures. What the film concentrates on most are the special effects, and this film wowed audiences through the apparently magical occurrences appearing on screen. Indeed, these effects are still impressive today, even if its easy to see how they're done. The most memorable image comes when the space ship crashes into the moon's eye - causing it to wince and frown in anger. There are also some excellent moments where our explorers are attacked by jumping goblin creatures which disappear in a puff of smoke when struck.It's all very surreal, especially when we see goddesses sitting on planets and grinning faces appearing in the stars. The plot follows a logical progression from beginning to end, and the sets used are expensively staged and have real depth. Okay, so the film is a bit creaky and jumpy but face it, its nearly a century old and being able to watch it today is simply fantastic. My great-grandparents would have been alive while they were making this. For any fan of the history of cinema, fantastical or not, A TRIP TO THE MOON is a landmark piece not to be missed.