Le Voyage dans la Lune

A Trip to the Moon

by Georges Méliès

France - 1902

Friday, June 7th • 2PM
At Chaktomuk

Short Film – 16 mn

Color (original color version, hand painted)

Silent film

ScreenplayGeorges Méliès

CinematographyGeorges Méliès

MusicAIR

CastGeorges Méliès, Henri Delannoy, Bleuette Bernon, François Lallement

Format35mm - Mono

GenreScience-Fiction

First releaseSeptember 1st, 1902 (France)

Restored version2011 by Lobster, Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema

ProductionGeorges Méliès / 1902 Star Film / 2011 Lobster Films–Fondation Groupama Gan–Fondation Technicolor

SynopsisSix scholars, member of the Astronomers’ Club, set off on an expedition to the moon. They travel in a bullet-shaped rocket fired into space by a giant canon. After arriving on the moon safe and sound, they meet its inhabitants, the Selenites, escape their king and return to earth in their rocket which, after falling into the ocean, is fished out by a sailor. Applause, decorations, and a triumphant parade for the six heroes of the first outer-space adventure in the history of cinema.

AboutA Trip to the Moon was probably the first science-fiction movie ever released and a blockbuster at the time ! We all knew it in black and white. It existed also in color, hand painted at the time according to Georges Méliès’ wish. But the color version had disappeared for almost a century. It was miraculously found in Spain and meticulously restored 109 years after its release. This film shows how Méliès used the color to maximize its special effects and tricks that he invented his films and in particular for this superproduction A Trip to the Moon. The restored version opened the Cannes Film festival in 2011, a legitimate reward for on the fathers of cinema.

Selective filmography of Georges Méliès
(1861-1938)

1896 – Escamotage d’une dame

1897 – Faust et Marguerite

1899 – L’Affaire Dreyfus

1901 – L’Homme à la tête de caoutchouc

1903 - Le chaudron infernal

1903 – La Lanterne magique

1904 – Voyage à travers l’impossible

1905 – Les cartes vivantes

1906 – Les 400 Farces du Diable

1907 – La fée libellule

1912 – Cendrillon ou La pantoufle merveilleuse

1913 – Le voyage da la famille Bourrichon

With the courtesy of Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema