{"id":156,"date":"2020-01-02T18:59:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T18:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/?p=156"},"modified":"2020-01-02T18:59:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T18:59:58","slug":"le-voyage-dans-la-lune-1902-mister-moon-1901","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/2020\/01\/02\/le-voyage-dans-la-lune-1902-mister-moon-1901\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902) \/ Mister Moon (1901)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le Voyage Dans La Lune<\/em> (or, A Trip To The Moon<\/em>), directed by Georges Melies in 1902, is perhaps the most well-known of all early films, especially the image of the moon with a spaceship in its eye.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ve always quite liked the way that the conventions, limitations and constraints of early film-making led to a similarity in style and appearance to early computer games (especially adventure games), which were the result of a very different set of technical problems, but which utilised very similar solutions.<\/p>\n

So here you get static single screen sets with lavishly painted backgrounds, through which the characters move one scene at a time (such as the two images immediately below). <\/p>\n

Partly this would have been due to the limitations\/difficulties of the filming process itself (movement juddering, smooth camera control, re-focusing, etc), partly for stylistic reasons (the recreation of a theatre-style viewpoint) and also because of the cost, size and other logistical problems in the making, building and staging of sets. <\/p>\n

These are evoked, in a way, by the static pre-rendered screens of something like Dizzy<\/a> or Monkey Island<\/a>, which allowed for a much higher graphical detail at the expense of screen movement\/scrolling, the number of moving characters\/enemies, and so on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The more obvious lineage, of course, is that of Le Voyage Dans La Lune’s<\/em> imagery being referenced and replicated in the 120 years since in everything from subsequent HG Wells and Jules Verne adaptations, to Tintin<\/a> and Flash Gordon (the crashed spaceship and the hopping Selenite are very similar to the initial landing scene and the strange green monster that gets incinerated a bit later in the 1980s version), right the way up to The Smashing Pumpkins<\/a> (I’ve often wondered if that video was the creation-myth of steampunk).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When they return to Earth, the scene where they crash into the sea is very similar to the corresponding scene in The Automatic Motorist<\/a>, even down to the newts swimming about. <\/p>\n

(I’d noticed the more obvious homages to this in The “?” Motorist<\/em> and The Automatic Motorist<\/em> when I watched them, but had missed this one)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also watched Mister Moon<\/em>, a 1 minute promotional video for the musical hall star Percy Henri’s comedy act, filmed in 1901, and which also features a terrifying human-faced moon (and nothing else at all, in this case).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, I found this utterly terrifying.<\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> I watched both of these on the BFI player again – Le Voyage Dans La Lune<\/a>; Mister Moon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The crashed spaceship image from A Trip To The Moon is one I’ve, erm, well, stolen<\/a> repeatedly<\/a> over the years, although I’ve not yet resorted to moons with faces, thankfully.<\/em><\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> I didn’t realise the BFI player was region locked to the UK, so I’ll try to add alternate links to things I’ve watched from now on<\/em><\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> If I can<\/em><\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Although you might well have been glad of the chance to not see the full horror of Mister Moon, to be honest.<\/em><\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

Film Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> Le Voyage Dans La Lune<\/em>
\nDirector:<\/strong> Georges Melies<\/em>
\nYear:<\/strong> 1902<\/em>
\nDuration:<\/strong> 12 minutes<\/em>
\nWatch:<\/strong> BFI<\/a>; youtube<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> Mister Moon<\/em>
\nDirector:<\/strong> Percy Honri<\/em>
\nYear:<\/strong> 1901<\/em>
\nDuration:<\/strong> 1 minute<\/em>
\nWatch:<\/strong> BFI<\/a>; youtube<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (or, A Trip To The Moon), directed by Georges Melies in 1902, is perhaps the most well-known of all early films, especially the image of the moon with a spaceship in its eye. I’ve always quite liked the way that the conventions, limitations and constraints of early film-making led to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[90,84,86,91,85,83,87,24,88,89,29],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-film-is-more-than-100-years-old","tag-90","tag-84","tag-a-trip-to-the-moon","tag-flash-gordon","tag-georges-melies","tag-le-voyage-dans-la-lune","tag-mister-moon","tag-moons-with-faces","tag-percy-honri","tag-science-fiction","tag-the-automatic-motorist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accumulationofthings.com\/100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}