Admirable film.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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".

We recently reached our first 100 years of cinema, and no one would dare say that cinema is not art. Yet, this movie was made back when cinema was, at most, a curiosity. A vulgar past time for the uncultured masses, at worst. I recently read a contemporary review of Dante's Inferno (1911, I believe), where the reviewer, a writer and culture woman, spelled this as clearly as this can be said (I translate from my memory): "We thought cinema was trash, but this was wonderful". With that attitude, it's no wonder early cinema was not carefully conserved. This movie was almost lost, and this would have been a great pity. This is a dreamy, wonderful hallucination. The story is told, and it's not seriously told. This movie does not take itself seriously, but it's meant to be funny, ironic, with a hint of some serious critique maybe (doesn't this space adventure remind you of colonialism a little bit?). The scientists are a funny lot, found of throwing science papers to each other's faces and surrounded with pretty assistants with naked legs (the relatively sexy attire of those assistants would have been a no-no until the 1970s in Italian TV). The Selenites are comic enemies. This movie has to be watched. It's entertaining and visually nice after 115 years. It sure is one of the first tries to use cinema in a new way to tell a story, and I believe later cinema (the already mentioned Dante movie included). It's a luck this was preserved and can be enjoyed today.

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.

If the movie starts like an Harry Potter with a sort of wizards assembly, at the end, this movie has the same impact that Star Wars achieved in 1977 : incredible sci-fi pictures helped with a breaking ground technology ! I know that Melies did movies before but i wanted to see this one first as it's an iconic movie of that era : the face in the moon is as much famous as E.T. ride or Marilyn's dress ! I have been lucky to see the color version, which is even more beautiful as it's look really like a painted black and white movie ! Regarding all my previous movies, this one really breaks ground : 15 minutes, a lot of cast, multiple sets, special effects, animation, and stunning moment all along : it's full of poetry, it has the charm of old times and for sure, it's french… It's totally surprising to see that my country was the leader in that entertainment and that we lost all our inspiration in the years after !