TRIBUTE – Georges Méliès

Published on: 10th March, 2010

TRIBUTE - Georges Méliès  | read this item

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Almost seventy years before Apollo 11 made history and Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon, French filmmaker Georges Méliès took his audience on a fantastic journey with his twelve minute classic Le Voyage dans la lune, more commonly known as A Trip to the Moon. Shot in 1902, the film would become one of the most iconic images of early cinema and would prove to be a major influence on directors for the next century.

Méliès was forty years old when he made Le Voyage dans la lune and had directed over three hundred short films, including 1896’s Le manoir du diable/The Devil’s Castle, which many critics site as the first ever horror movie, despite being only two minutes in length. Inspired by a variety of classic science fiction literature, the film would become Méliès’ most acclaimed work.

Le Voyage dans la lune is even more of an achievement because cinema at that time was still in its infancy, with very few filmmakers (with the exception of R.W. Paul) embracing the possibilities that this new medium had to offer. Méliès was a former stage magician and would incorporate many of these tricks into his films, including matte paints.

Despite his legacy, by 1913 he had become bankrupt and much of his work would be destroyed or lost forever. It would not be until after his death in 1938 that his reputation as the first ever true filmmaker would be cemented. Along with Le manoir du diable, his crowning achievement would be Le Voyage dans la lune, which he will be forever known for.

Watch Le Voyage dans la lune below…

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