Méliès' A trip to the moon (1902)

[Gorn Captain]

I just went to see the newly restored version of the first SciFi movie in a local movie theatre. A true classic, preceeded by an hour-long making of documentary talking about the life of Méliès and his movies, and the "holy grail find" of a complete (colored) copy.
This is where it all started.
The restorers had to soak the reel in a special "fume chamber" for over a year, peeling back one layer at a time (like an onion), as the whole thing had gelled together into a solid mass over the course of a century.
Fascinating stuff!

It's also out on Blu-ray, the 14 minute film and the documentary. The team is French, so expect a truly terrific "Maurice Chavelier" style voice-over...

One downside: the film itself got a modern music soundtrack added to it, so please plug up your ears while watching...

[kennermike]

You know I have never seen this film? I would love too one of these days

[samurainoir]

Very cool. I'm glad that Hugo has brought back a great deal of awareness to this and other gems from the dawn of cinema.

Smashing Pumpkins fans might get some delight out of this as well.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...eDzf0YBmnB6PNA

[Joe90]

Back in the early eighties I took a film course and we saw an old worn copy of Méliès' film, along with Griffith's Birth of a Nation, and Lang's Metropolis. The treat at the time was Gance's Napoleon had just been re-released by Francis Ford Coppola and so we got to see a decent print of a film we were studying.

Shortly thereafter Metropolis was re-released with the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack. I had the same attitude toward that soundtrack that you experienced with the new soundtrack to A Trip to the Moon.

I remember thinking that a more fitting soundtrack would have been achieved had the restoration team used pieces from David Bowie's Station to Station and his Berlin Trilogy.

[Splitty]

I have never seen that, but always wanted to really badly. 'sppose I should get on that.

[Werewolf]

It's a surreal movie. Besides the obvious historic appeal it is still pretty fun to watch.

[cjefferys]

I'm probably gonna pick this up on Blu-ray. Haven't seen it in years, and I'm curious about how it looks with the coloring. The documentary is included too, and that sounds like a really interesting watch.

[mazinz]

The restorers had to soak the reel in a special "fume chamber" for over a year, peeling back one layer at a time (like an onion), as the whole thing had gelled together into a solid mass over the course of a century.
Fascinating stuff!

.

That is insane, but glad it worked out in the end. Will have to pick up that bluray. I never saw the film, only bits and pieces of it usually in sci-fi documentaries

[captact]

Very cool. I'm glad that Hugo has brought back a great deal of awareness to this and other gems from the dawn of cinema.

Smashing Pumpkins fans might get some delight out of this as well.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...eDzf0YBmnB6PNA

Awesome link!!! Thanks!!!

[Gorn Captain]

I loved the aliens in the movie (they had really cool sculpted costumes), and the reaction the explorers had towards them. Everytime they encountered an alien, they bashed his head in until he exploded.
Reach for the stars...and kill something!