Film Review: Le Voyage dans la Lune

Key historical figure of the cinema, Georges Méliès is well known for having given an entirely new purpose to the film medium, which was only taking its first faltering steps at the time, by using it as an expressive art form. Coming from a fairground entertainment background, he brought an imaginary dimension to the documentary-like vues animées of the Lumière brothers. 

Figure 1.

His most-renowned work, Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), embodies what he wanted his new craft to deliver: a sense of wonder and out-of-this-world fantasy. To achieve that, the filmmaker-illusionist takes storytelling to a new level, making use of large-scaled sets and optical tricks that he discovered were possible with the invention of the cinematograph.

With the knowledge borrowed from his stage career, Méliès replicates techniques used in theatre to transform his glass-enclosed studio into convincing sceneries. His team of artists imitates depth by layering the set, even painting backgrounds in baroque trompe-l'œil style and placing fish tanks between the camera and the backdrops (figure 2). Trap doors and smoke escaping through holes also participate in the illusion that the space is bigger than it really is. The surreal landscapes are painted in a light-hearted yet realistic enough way to make the spectators believe, just for a couple of minutes, that they truly are embarking on a trip to the Moon. The final result is what Tom Gunning classifies as “a fairyland with a sense of humour and irony about itself.”

Figure 2.

Since Méliès descends from the burlesque tradition, it is natural to notice that the mise-en-scène still feels very stagey. The camera is treated like a person sitting amongst an audience and the frame considered the limits of the set. Méliès even refers to each scene as a ‘tableau’, which the actors populate like characters in a painting. Dan North points out in his article how the performers are essentially tools to support the cinematography: “Their physical gestures are often conducted as a group, and usually designed to assist the spectator in looking to the correct portion of the frame. There is therefore a lot of pointing in the direction of where something amazing is happening, urging the spectator to look at the marvellous sight and not to focus on the experience that the fictional characters are having, but to enjoy his or her own experience of the adventure.” This broad screen angle is thus designed to make the viewers fully embrace the bigger-than-life environments. Never once will we then get something such a close-up or an insert, because Méliès’ intention here is not to focus on the characters’ psychology but to create spectacular imagery.

Figure 4.

Figure 3.

But that doesn’t stop the filmmaker from discovering new ways of conveying narratives. As Tim Nicholas remarks, “Georges Méliès used animation techniques such as stop motion, hand painting, and time-lapse extensively in his films, and likely made no distinction between these and more “standard” film techniques he pioneered, such as double exposure and dissolves.” In Le Voyage dans la Lune, we can see an example of how Méliès already manipulates time on-screen, when anthropomorphic versions of spatial phenomenon occupy the sky in a succession of lens fades (figure 5). The ex-magician is also famous for having discovered, in the course of a happy accident, the film trick. It has since then become an essential part of his work and his mise-en-scène heavily relies on it to convey its féerie.

Figure 5.

With its first ventures into the world of special effects and artificial sets, Le Voyage dans la Lune is undoubtedly one of the pieces that helped shape today’s way of conceiving production design, as well as making films synonym of dreams.

Bibliography

Gunning, Tom. (1990) “The Cinema of Attractions: Earl Film, its Spectator and the Avant-Garde”. At: https://soma.sbcc.edu/users/...118/.../Iluminations_Meleies_Gunning.doc (Accessed on 30/09/14)

North, Dan (first published 8 October 2008; Updated 12 February 2009; 10 June 2010; 24 February 2012; 27 March 2012) “A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)”. At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ (Accessed on 30/09/14)

Nicholas, Tim (20 January 2012) “Experimental Animation”. At: http://www.icewhistle.com/posts/experimental-animation (Accessed on 30/09/14)

Illustration List

Figure 1. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)  [Poster] At: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/3446034h (Accessed on 03/10/14)

Figure 2. Underwater Still. (1902) From: Le Voyage dans la Lune. Directed by: Méliès, G. [Film still] France: Star Film. At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ (Accessed on 03/10/14).

Figure 3. Cannon Still. (1902) From: Le Voyage dans la Lune. Directed by: Méliès, G. [Film still] France: Star Film. At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ (Accessed on 03/10/14).

Figure 4. Earth Rising Still. (1902) From: Le Voyage dans la Lune. Directed by: Méliès, G. [Film still] France: Star Film. At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ (Accessed on 03/10/14).

Figure 5. Stars Still. (1902) From: Le Voyage dans la Lune. Directed by: Méliès, G. [Film still] France: Star Film. At: http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ (Accessed on 03/10/14).