le voyage film

ARTS & CULTURE

A trip to the moon as you’ve never seen it before.

One of the landmark films in cinema can now be seen in color

Daniel Eagan

It’s one of the most famous films in cinema, a special-effects, science-fiction extravaganza that became an international sensation when it was released in 1902. Almost instantly it was pirated, bootlegged, copied and released by competing studios under different names. And for decades it’s only been available in black-and-white copies.

Now, after a 12 year project that approached a half-million euros in cost, Lobster Films , The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage , and Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma are unveiling a new version of A Trip to the Moon , “resurrected,” in the words of preservationist Tom Burton, from an original, hand-colored nitrate print. For the first time in generations viewers will be able to see the color version of the film that stunned early 20th-century moviegoers.

Le voyage dans la lune , to use its French title, is one of over 500 movies made by Georges Méliès, perhaps the first filmmaker to fully grasp the potential of cinema. The son of a wealthy shoemaker, Méliès was born in 1861. Fascinated by magic and illusions, he left the family business in 1888. Buying the Robert-Houdin theater from his widow in Paris, he developed a successful act with illusions such as “The Vanishing Lady.” Méliès was in the audience when the Lumière brothers held their first public film screening on December 28, 1895, and within months was exhibiting movies at his theater.

Méliès made his first film in November, 1896, built his own studio in 1901 and formed the Star Film brand to market his work in France and internationally. He made movies about current events and fairy tales, replicated his stage illusions on screen and developed a highly advanced technical style that incorporated stop-motion animation: double-, triple-, and quadruple-exposures; cross-dissolves; and jump cuts. More than any of his contemporaries, Méliès made movies that were fun and exciting. They were filled with stunts, tricks, jokes, dancing girls, elaborate sets and hints of the macabre.

A Trip to the Moon had several antecedents, including the 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and A Trip to the Moon , a four-act opera with music by Jacques Offenbach that debuted in 1877. Méliès may also have been aware of a theater show at the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, called A Trip to the Moon . Filming started in May, 1902. It was released on September 1 in Paris and a little over a month later in New York City.

At the time exhibitors and individuals could purchase films outright from the Star Films catalog. Color prints were available at an extra cost. Probably not too many color prints of A Trip to the Moon were ever in existence, but it came out right around that time color became a real fad. Within a couple of years, the hand-painting was replaced by tinting and stencil process, so color became more prevalent and less expensive. Several color Méliès films survive, but it was believed that the color Trip to the Moon had long been lost.

But in 1993, Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange of Lobster Films obtained an original nitrate print from the Filmoteca de Catalunya . The only problem: it had decomposed into the equivalent of a solid hockey puck. In 1999, Bromberg and Lange, two of the most indefatigable of all film historians, began to try to unspool the reel by placing it in the equivalent of a humidor, using a chemical compound that softened the nitrate enough to digitally document individual frames. (The process also ultimately destroyed the film.)

Years later, Bromberg had some 5,000 digital files, which he handed over to Tom Burton, the executive director of Technicolor Restoration Services in Hollywood. In a recent phone call, Burton described how his team approached this “bucket of digital shards.”

“What we got was a bunch of digital data that had no sequential relationship to each other because they had to photograph whatever frame or piece of a frame that they could,” Burton recalled. “We had to figure out the puzzle of where these chunks of frames, sometimes little corners of a frame or a half of a frame, where all these little pieces went. Over a period of about nine months we put all these pieces back together, building not only sections but rebuilding individual frames from shattered pieces.”

Burton estimated that they could salvage between 85 to 90 percent of the print. They filled in the missing frames by copying them from a private print held by the Méliès family and digitally coloring the frames to match the original hand colored source.

“It’s really more a visual effects project in a way than a restoration project,” Burton said. “A lot of the technology that we used to rebuild these frames is the technology you would use if you were making a first-run, major visual effects motion picture. You’d never have been able to pull this off 10 years ago, and certainly not at all with analog, photochemical technology.”

For Burton, A Trip to the Moon represents the beginnings of modern visual effects as we know them today. “Seeing it in color makes it a whole different film,” he said. “The technique involved teams of women painting individual frames with tiny brushes and aniline dyes. The color is surprisingly accurate but at times not very precise. It will wander in and out of an actor’s jacket, for example. But it’s very organic. It will never rival the way A Trip to the Moon first screened for audiences, but it’s still pretty amazing.”

A Trip to the Moon was shown at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is screening on September 6 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bromberg will be showing it at this year’s New York Film Festival , and on November 11 at the Museum of Modern Art , along “with the world premiere of my documentary about the restoration. An absolute must!” as he wrote in an e-mail. Was this his most exciting restoration? “One of them, of course,” he answered. “The best one is the next one!!”

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"Daniel Eagan is a film writer and author of America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry . "

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Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon)

Film Details

Science Fiction and Fantasy, Short Films, Silent

No Dialogue

One of the first narrative films in cinema history, A Trip to the Moon is a playful sci-fi story from the silent era. A group of astronomers agree to take part in a dangerous exploration mission and are rocketed into space in a metal capsule. When they land on the moon, they encounter surreal plants, creatures and fantastical beings, all brought to life with inventive special effects. Director Georges Méliès is credited with having invented the jump cut, an editing trick for making objects and people ‘magically’ appear or disappear on film – a technique that has influenced generations of filmmakers and is still being adopted by today’s TikTok creators. This iconic short film is wildly imaginative, capturing audiences with the stark magic of the moving image to transport them to the moon.

• George Méliès

Cast (in alphabetical order)

• Victor André ,
• Bleuette Bernon ,
• Georges Méliès

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Contains very mild fantasy violence.

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Le Grand Voyage

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Ismaël Ferroukhi

Nicolas Cazalé

Mohamed Majd

Jacky Nercessian

Malika Mesrar El Hadaoui

François Baroni

Le Douanier Italien

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• Le Voyage dans la Lune - Film (Movie) Plot and Review

Le Voyage Dans La Lune - Film (Movie) Plot and Review

(A Trip to the Moon)

France, 1902

Director: Georges Méliès

Production: Star Film Studios (Montreuil, France); black and white, 35mm, silent; running time: 14 minutes, but varying lengths exist; length: about 825 feet. Released 1902, at Méliès's Théâtre Robert Houdin in Paris. Filmed in 1902 in Méliès's Star Film Studios at Montreuil. Cost: 10,000 francs.

Scenario: Georges Méliès; photography: possibly by one or more of Méliès' regular cameramen who included Leclerc, Michaut, Lallemand, and Astaix.

Cast: Georges Méliès ( Barbenfouillis, President of the Astronomer's Club ); Bluette Bernon ( Phoebe on the crescent moon ); acrobats from the Folies-Bergère ( Members of the Selenite Army ).

Publications

Méliès, Georges, Le Voyage dans la lune , in Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), November 1984.

Sadoul, Georges, An Index to the Creative Work of Georges Méliès , London 1947.

Sadoul, Georges, French Film , Paris, 1953.

Ford, Charles, Georges Méliès , Brussels, 1959.

Bessy, Maurice, and Lo Duca, Georges Méliès, Mage , Paris, 1961.

Sadoul, Georges, Georges Méliès , Paris, 1961.

Deslandes, Jacques, Le Boulevard du cinéma à l'epoque de Georges Méliès , Paris, 1963.

Kyrou, Ado, De Méliès à l'expressionisme: Le Surréalisme au Cinéma , Paris 1963.

Ceram, C. W., Archaeology of the Cinema , New York, 1965.

Jeanne, Rene, Cinéma 1900 , Paris, 1965.

Malthête-Méliès, Madeleine, Méliès, l'enchanteur , Paris, 1973

North, Joseph, Early Development of the Motion Picture , New York, 1973.

Hammond, Paul, Marvellous Méliès , New York, 1975.

Frazer, John, Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès , Boston, 1979.

Ellis, Jack C., A History of Film , Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.

Usai, Paolo Cherci, Georges Méliès , Florence, 1983.

Jenn, Pierre, Georges Méliès cinéaste: La Montage cinématographique chez Georges Méliès , Paris, 1984.

Malthête-Méliès, Madeleine, Méliès et la naissance du spectacle cinématographique , Paris, 1984.

Sadoul, Georges, Lumière et Méliès , Paris, 1984.

Langlois, Henri, and others, Méliès: Un Homme d'illusions , Paris, 1986.

Redi, Riccardo, editor, Verso il centenario: Méliès , Rome, 1987.

Malthête, Jacques, Méliès: images et illusions , Paris, 1996.

Thompson, Frank T., The Star Film Ranch: Texas' First Picture Show , Plano, 1996.

Lapierre, Marcel, "Histoire d'un film: Le Voyage dans la lune, " in Ce Soir (Paris), December 1937.

Cavalcanti, Alberto, "Father of the Fantasy Film," in Listener (London), 2 June 1938.

"Méliès, pére du Cinéma, fils de Jules Verne," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris) no. 10, 1952.

Bessy, Maurice, "Méliès," in Anthologie du cinéma 2 , Paris, 1967.

Brakhage, Stan, "George Méliès," in Caterpillar (New York), Spring 1970.

Langlois, Henri, "Georges Méliès, magicien du cinéma," in Cinéma (Paris), January 1971.

Helmani, A., in Kino (Warsaw), January 1974.

Barnouw, Erik, "The Magician and the Movies," in American Film (Washington D.C.), April and May 1978.

Courant, G., "Point d'histoire: Méliès: La Fin d'un mythe?," in Cinéma (Paris), May 1979.

Quevrain, Anne Marie, "L'Ideologie de Méliès et son époque," in Cinéma (Paris), September 1979.

Veillon, O.-R., in Cinématographe (Paris), January 1981.

Quevrain, Anne Marie, "A la rédecouverte de Méliès: Le Voyage dans la lune ," in Cahiers de la Cinémathèque (Perpignan), Autumn 1982.

Beylie, Claude, "Actualité de Georges Méliès," in Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), April 1984.

Waldekranz, R., in Chaplin (Stockholm), vol. 27, no. 3, 1985.

Masson, A., "Le Cinéma incomparables: Sur Georges Méliès," in Positif (Paris), April 1985.

Miller, Ron, "Silent Space," in Filmfax (Evanston), no. 49, March-April 1995.

Ede, François, "De la terre à la lune," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), no. 503, June 1996.

Jefferson, Margo, "Moonstruck Magic by the Grandfather of Film Fantasies," in New York Times , vol. 147, A13 and B7, 15 November 1997.

Partly inspired by Jules Verne's early work of science fiction De la terre à la lune (1865) and by H. G. Wells's prophetic novel The First Men in the Moon (1901), Georges Méliès's Le voyage dans la lune (1902) is remarkable for its imaginative, and continually diverting, narrative development. The serious, didactic purpose of the literary antecedents is ignored to provide an engaging entertainment. By the turn of the century lunar episodes featured regularly in fairground shows and theatrical spectacles, and as early as 1898 Méliès had followed the fashion with short fairy-tale sequences such as La lune à un métre. However, with Le voyage dans la lune —his account of the pioneering journey to the moon undertaken by the intrepid Professor Barbenfouillis and his companions, and of their adventures with the Selenites—he surpassed all previous lunar spectacles, creating new standards in film entertainment, and in so doing accelerated the trend towards more sophisticated studio-based productions. Comprising 30 tableaux using 18 decors, the film is about 14 minutes long, and for its period was both ambitious in conception and lavish in its production values. Méliès was director, producer, setdesigner, and leading actor.

In his exuberant narrative Méliès successfully mixes traditional stage-craft with his extensive repertory of special effects. The painted backdrops for the Astronomers Club, the industrial landscape with smoke rising from a host of chimneys, and the opulent Palace of the Moon King are magnificent examples of theatrical trompe l'oeil. Although fixed cameras are used throughout, Méliès films from different angles on the same set to create changes of perspective and viewpoint. Transitions between successive tableaux are achieved by overprinting frames, a technique borrowed from magic-lantern shows and already used extensively by the filmmaker in his version of Cendrillon in 1899. Several episodes, such as the launching of the spaceship and the hectic chase across the lunar landscape, have rightly become anthology pieces. Méliès's growing mastery of special effects is witnessed in the depiction of the spaceship drawing closer to the moon and landing in the moon's eye. The simulated forward travelling shot, in which a model of the moon is brought closer to a static camera, had already been exploited in L'homme à la tête de caoutchouc (1902). After this visual joke about the Man in the Moon, the spaceship is seen to land again in a more realistic mode, and in this double presentation Méliès extended traditional narrative conventions. Stop-camera techniques are used to change the passing stars and planets into pretty maidens, and the same trick is used to convert umbrellas into gigantic mushrooms, or to remove Selenites in a puff of smoke. For the return of the spaceship to Earth a series of different scale models was used in a rapid montage sequence, while the scenes of the craft dropping to the ocean floor and the subsequent rescue exploited the resources of an aquarium. As Pierre Jenn's analysis has shown, Georges Sadoul's long-acceptd direct equation between tableau and decor does not hold for Le voyage dans la lune. A given tableau may exploit more than one decor, and on occasions one decor may give rise to several tableaux.

Made in May 1902 and marketed in August of that year, the film was an immediate success. As with so many of Méliès's productions, counterfeit copies were soon circulating in America and this finally prompted Méliès to open up a transatlantic office to protect his rights. Capitalising on his success, Méliès extended the space travel genre with Voyage à travers l'impossible (1904), this time recounting a trip to the sun.

With its evocative sets Le voyage dans la lune has been frequently cited as seminal to the development of the German expressionist movement, while for its spontaneity and fantasy the film became a reference point for avant-garde filmmakers and surrealists. Buñuel, for one, acknowledged Le voyage dans la lune as a formative influence, while the films of René Clair and Jacques Prévert owe much to their pioneering compatriot. In Shoot the Moon (1962) the underground director Rudy Burckhardt paid explicit homage to Méliès, while in his film tribute Le grand Méliès (1952), Franju uses footage from Le voyage dans la lune to illustrate the director's innovative approach to filmmaking and his technical brilliance.

—R. F. Cousins

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Le Grand Voyage review – an incredible spectacle

A sweet-natured and affecting road movie about an elderly Moroccan exile in France who makes his son drive him on a 3,000 mile pilgrimage to Mecca

I smaël Ferroukhi’s first feature is a sweet-natured and affecting road movie about an elderly Moroccan exile in France forcing his irreligious younger son to drive him on a 3,000 mile Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. We don’t get offered many novel variations on this classic theme: no prizes for guessing if father and son have arguments but wind up treasuring each other.

But it is made notable and even remarkable for the unprecedented scenes at Mecca itself. Though documentarists have been permitted to shoot there in the past, this is the first time for a feature film, and Ferroukhi has his characters mingling with the pilgrims making the hajj - two million extras! It really is an incredible spectacle: an authentic religious phenomenon which is largely invisible and under-imagined in western culture. That extraordinary panorama of white-clad pilgrims crowding into the mosque’s inner terraces has not yet been rendered familiar as an image in the same way as, say, St Peter’s in Rome.

In some ways it is a pity that the scenes in Mecca do not occupy more of the film, yet without the long build-up, showing the feuding father and son driving through Europe and the Middle East, the final section wouldn’t count for as much. There are very good performances from Mohamed Majd and Nicolas Cazalé as father and son.

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Eminent Afghanistan filmmaker Roya Sadat had quite the journey while filming “ The Sharp Edge of Peace ,” which has its world premiere at Hot Docs .

The film follows four women leaders, Fatima Gailani, Fawzia Koofi, Habiba Sarabi and Sharifa Zumati, who risk their lives and receive death threats, as they find a way to sit at the negotiating table with the Taliban to ensure justice for women.

“The women of Afghanistan have an unwritten history of struggle. There’s no mention of their names in the pages of political history; this lost history has been standing up for its rights for years. And this time, the presence of four women at the negotiating table with the Taliban was astonishing to me,” Sadat said. “I saw making this film more than just an artistic endeavor; it was a responsibility. And I know the world needs narratives like this. The world of male-dominated politics astonishes us every day.”

The filming process for “The Sharp Edge of Peace” began in 2020, when Kabul was a dangerous place ahead of the U.S. troops’ withdrawal and the impending return of the Taliban. Access to government and civil institutions was often restricted or impossible. The presence of the four women protagonists at the negotiation panel heightened their security risks, and filming them presented numerous obstacles. Securing permits and coordinating with the negotiation team brought weeks of uncertainty. And alongside producer Leslie Thomas (“The Prosecutors”), Sadat and her team reached out to international bodies for assistance, seeking help from government contacts to assert their rights as independent filmmakers.

The film was finally completed against the odds. “This film would not have been made if Leslie Thomas, the producer of the film, and Aziz Deldar my life companion and the brave team who stood together at the height of Kabul’s insecurity, were not in this challenging journey,” Sadat said.

However, there is no chance for “The Sharp Edge of Peace” to be exhibited in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. “The Taliban is in control in Afghanistan and they have deprived women of their most basic rights. If gender apartheid were officially recognized in the world, gender apartheid would be taking place in Afghanistan, and in this situation, how could a film that talks about women’s resistance be allowed to be shown there? Our film, like ourselves, is in exile, and I am sure that one day it will be screened in Kabul’s Ariana Cinema, as well as in Herat, Kabul and Kandahar, when our homeland is free again,” Sadat said.

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Simone: Woman of the Century

Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series ... Read all Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories

• Olivier Dahan
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• Élodie Bouchez
• 13 User reviews
• 15 Critic reviews

• Simone Veil (1968-2006)

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• Hafsia Hamdad
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• Jean-Paul Davin
• Ginette Cherkasky (adolescente)
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• La jeune héroïnomane

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• All cast & crew
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• actress Elsa Zylberstein took on 18 pounds for the role, and spent weeks trying to imitate Simone Veil's speech pattern;
• actress Rebecca Marder listened to Veil's speeches two hours a day during 5-6 months and watched a lot of archive footage, and had a lot of makeup and prosthetics on her nose, cheeks and eyebrow arches;
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• Soundtracks Les Roses Blanches Music by Léon Raiter Lyrics by Charles L. Pothier

User reviews 13

• Nov 22, 2022
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• October 12, 2022 (France)
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• Marvelous Productions
• France 2 Cinéma
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• $19,167,164

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 20 minutes

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