The movie opens with a Scientific Congress in which Professor Barbenfouillis (played by Méliès himself) tries to convince his colleagues to take part in a trip to explore the moon. It offers many elements characteristic of the genre-a spaceship, the discovery of a new frontier-and establishes most of its conventions. Despite the simplicity of its special effects, the film is generally considered the first example of science-fiction cinema. The film boldly experiments with some of the most famous cinematic techniques, such as superimpositions, dissolves, and editing practices that would be widely used later on. This French movie was released in 1902 and represents a revolution for the time, given its length (approximately fourteen minutes), as compared to the more common two-minute short films produced at the beginning of last century.Ī Trip to the Moon directly reflects the histrionic personality of its director, Georges Méliès, whose past as a theater actor and magician influences the making of the movie. When thinking about A Trip to the Moon, one’s mind is quickly captured by the original and mythic idea of early filmmaking as an art whose “rules” were established in the very process of its production.
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