Space Oddities Film Reviews: Le Voyage Dans La Lune

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The original title Le Voyage Dane La Lune means A Trip to the Moon ; it is a 14 minute short, black and white silent movie that was made in 1902 by French Director Georges Mlis and is one of the first films ever made introducing the genre of science fiction. It is based on a combination of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and H. G. Wells' First Men in the Moon (1901). The film was hugely successful with all audiences and is still a bench mark and a huge inspiration for many sci-fi films we see today. Brief Plot: A group of astronomers build a rocket which is launched to the Moon from a giant cannon. The crew explore the new world and soon bump into other alien life forms. After the comedic struggles with the strange beings and their leader they make a quick escape and return to Earth. The image of the Moon with a face with the bullet rocket in which the astronomers travel in, in its eye (Figure 1) is a rather bizarre creation by Mlis but is still and always will be a very famous and iconic piece of film history. Noting what era it was made in, there is a very clear and obvious lack of knowledge of the true outer space. For starters the transportation they use to make the voyage to the moon is just a simple bullet shaped space shuttle that gets blasted into the outer atmosphere by a large cannon (Figure 2). Although it is a very simplistic design and nothing like the true rockets that astronauts travelled/travel into space in, it is still a creative and innovative design and a good attempt/interesting approach of Mlis at depicting space travel in a way that the audience understands as no one could really say for certain how/if it was even possible back then. - Mlis had the know-how as a magician to make the
impossible seem possible, and the energy and sense of fun to make it come alive in an entertaining and unforgettable way. B. Skutle

Another point that shows lack of knowledge is the fact they have no need to wear space suits of any kind and just roam the strange land like they would on Earth as they did not know about the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere (Figure 3). As well as their attire there is no change in gravitational pull (Figure 3) again due to the fact of lack of knowledge. For someone watching the film today it does not seem at all like they are in space and can be somewhat confusing at points.

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When it comes to the visual aspect of the film Mlis used painted, flat backdrops to show vast detailed backgrounds for every cut which would show all sorts of things from rocks, stars, the sky, water, wildlife, mountains, under sea, architecture etc. (Figures 4 and 5). This approach makes the film that much more fantastical. - the intentionally unreal appearance of the sets, costumes, and
special effects gives the film an aura of pure fantasy that few modern films come close to approaching. - B. Ignizio, 2012

As well as this, it is arguably one of the first movies to use visual effects such as the dissolve effect, superimpositions and other animation techniques.

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One of the most famous and key scenes of the film is when the travellers wake up from their rest and enter a cave in the moons surface. Here you see a fantastical design of giant mushrooms everywhere with a waterfall in the background and a log which they walk across (Figure 6). This drastic change in scenery really surprises the audience as it is no where near what a normal person would expect but this is exactly what Mlis wanted and was a huge selling point for the film.

Playing as the main character, Mlis himself puts his umbrella in the ground and soon enough yet another mushroom very quickly grows out of the ground and all the travellers look in amazement. They are even more surprised when an alien or moon man comes in the shot and tries to attack them. There is a subtle aspect of comedy to the film. Whether this was intentional or not is another question; the visual comedic elements are around here and there throughout most of the film which creates a light hearted mood for the viewers even though its a silent movie which can sometimes create tension. We don't quite know whether this was meant to be action-adventure or broad comedy (ALL the melodramatic acting back then looked like broad comedy), but whatever it is, it's hilarious. In a simple, innocent, unsophisticated way. - J. Dunmore, 2011

Mlis silent master piece is a true inspiration to all science fiction films that we see today and is ultimately a major corner stone of science fiction film and modern filmmaking.

Image Bibliography Figure 1: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/no-rockets-noproblem Figure 2: http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-128374/The-innovative-Le-Voyagedans-la-lune-directed-by-George Figure 3: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/early-birds-putting-pro-in.html Figure 4: http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/artist-study-george-melies Figure 5: http://www.molodezhnaja.ch/voyagedanslalune.htm Quotes Bibliography Skutle, Available at: http://www.sonic-cinema.com/ Review: http://www.sonic-cinema.com/film_reviews_individual/1121/a-trip-tothe-moon-short [Accessed online on 5th October 2012] Dunmore, 2011, Available at: http://www.poffysmoviemania.com/ Review: http://www.poffysmoviemania.com/TripToTheMoon.html [Accessed online on 5th October 2012] Ignizio, 2012, Available at: http://www.clevelandmovieblog.com/ Review: http://www.clevelandmovieblog.com/2012/06/evening-with-georgemelies-june-26th-at.html [Accessed online on 5th October 2012]