Stanko's Stance

“A group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.”

Director: Georges Méliès
Writers: Georges Méliès, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells
Staring: Georges Méliès
Streaming: HBO Max
Release Date: January 14, 2022

You can watch A Trip To The Moon (1902) on a lot of different outlets and every movie lover should. I know that I am late to the party myself, but better to arrive at a fashionable time than to never arrive at all.

The 16 minutes French short silent movie follows a group of astronomers who venture to the moon in an attempt to discover a new land. Shot out a large cannon in a giant bullet, the scientists land on the moon and experience the new landscape and its natural habitants. The discoverers must find a way to get home to tell earth of their discoveries.

Writer, director and star Georges Méliès deserves credit for changing the world of movies. He embraced change at the turn of the century and everyone after him needs to follow him. For the time of 1902, this would be deemed a blockbuster. There are elaborate costumes, great special effects and a premise that was foreign to an entire audience.

You have to love reading the trivia on A Trip To The Moon because it shows a glimpse to a different time. This movie has what is considered on the the first animated sequences in movie history. Director Georges Méliès made OVER 520 movies which is BONKERS!

Another fun fact about this movie is that it may be the first time a movie was pirated and sold without permission. People on the staff of A Trip To The Moon created duplicate reels of the movies and sent them to the United States.

The version of this movie on HBO is the restored colored version that was thought to be lost to the annuals of time.

STANKO RATING: A (5.0/5 Stars)

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