Fantastic voyages of the cinematic imagination : Georges Méliès's "Trip to the moon

An authoritative and comprehensive guide to cinemas first true blockbuster. Best moving pictures I ever saw. Thus did one vaudeville theater manager describe Georges Mliss A Trip to the Moon [ Le Voyage dans la lune ], after it was screened for enthusiastic audiences in October 1902. Cinemas first blockbuster, A Trip to the Moon still inspires such superlatives and continues to be widely seen more than one hundred years later. In Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination , a number of leading film scholars examine Mliss landmark film in detail, demonstrating its many crucial connections to literature, popular culture, and visual culture of the time, as well as its long afterlife in more recent films, music videos, and television. Together, their essays make clear that Mlis should be seen not only as a major filmmaker but also as a key figure in the emergence of modern spectacle. By bringing the interdisciplinary methodologies of early cinema studies to bear on A Trip to the Moon , the books contributors also open up much larger questions about aesthetics, media, and modernity. In his introduction, Matthew Solomon traces the convoluted provenance of the films multiple versions and its key place in the historiography of cinema, and an appendix contains a useful dossier of primary-source documents that contextualize the films production, along with translations of two major articles written by Mlis himself. Included with the book is a critical edition DVD containing two versions of the a reconstructed version (finally presented at the speed specified in Mliss catalogs) accompanied by an original 1903 score and a recently rediscovered color-tinted version; both have optional audio commentaries by the editor. Fantastic Voyages is a significant volume of criticism, one that has a clear appeal to historians of early film, but also one that, thanks to the quality and breadth of its contributions, has much to offer to a wider audience. Science Fiction Studies Matthew Solomon deserves much credit for making the point that the study of an individual film by a range of scholars ought to find a larger place among the more traditional auteur and genre studies. Film History This superbly conceived collection enhances understanding of a keystone film Excellent early-cinema scholars illuminate [Mliss] articulate artistic credo and his meticulous and inventive practice of the new art form A necessary addition to comprehensive film collections. CHOICE This is a welcome addition to the field of early film history. It does that wonderful thing that the best film histories doit points out the relevance of its subject to areas beyond cinema studies. In this case the focus on one filmmaker affords a deeper understanding of not only Mlis and the context of his work, but also its impact on aesthetic and critical debates ranging from the avant-garde of the early twentieth century to those concerning technology and vision in the twenty-first century. Michael Hammond, author of The Big British Cinema Culture in the Great War, 19141918 While focusing on A Trip to the Moon, the book highlights such diverse issues as the films artistic sources, its historical reception over time, its place within the career of Mlis, and its relation to other works of cinema. Lucy Fischer, author of Designing Cinema, Art Deco, and the Female Form 'Best moving pictures I ever saw.'Thus did one Vaudeville theater manager describe Georges Méliès's A Trip to the Moon [Le Voyage dans la lune], after it was screened for enthusiastic audiences in October 1902. Cinema's first true blockbuster, A Trip to the Moon still inspires such superlatives and continues to be widely viewed on DVD, on the Internet, and in countless film courses. In Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination, leading film scholars examine Méliès's landmark film in detail, demonstrating its many crucial connecions to literature, popular culture, and visual culture of the time, as well as its long'afterlife'in more recent films, television, and music videos. Together, these essays make clear that Méliès was not only a major filmmaker but also a key figure in the emergence of modern spectacle and the birth of the modern cinematic imagination, and by bringing interdisciplinary methodologies of early cinema studies to bear on A Trip to the Moon, the contributors also open up much larger questions about aesthetics, media, and modernity.In his introduction, Matthew Solomon traces the convoluted provenance of the film's multiple versions and its key place in the historiography of cinema, and an appendix contains a useful dossier of primary-source documents that contextualize the film's production, along with translations of two major articles written by Méliès himself. Introduction A trip to the movies: Georges Méliès, filmmaker and magician (1861-1938) / Paolo Cherchi Usai Theatricality, narrativity, and trickality : reevaluating the cinema of Georges Méliès / André Gaudreault A trip to the moon : a composite film / Thierry Lefebvre First-footing on the moon : Méliès, debt to Verne and Wells and his influence in Britain / Ian Christie Distance does not exist : Méliès, le cinéma, and the moon / Murray Pomerance Shooting into outer space : reframing modern vision / Tom Gunning A trip to the moon as féerie / Frank Kessler A trip to the moon as an American phenomenon / Richard Abel A trip to the fair; or, moon-walking in space / Matthew Solomon The stars might be smiling : a feminist forage into a famous film / Victoria Duckett Impossible voyages and extraordinary adventures in early science fiction cinema : from Robida to Méliès and Marcel Fabre / Antonio Costa No one-way ticket to the moon / Viva Paci. A classic fantasy film featuring trick photography. A group of scientists are shot to the moon, captured by moon-men, escape and fall back to Earth and a triumphal celebration. Thirty moving tableaux which picture travel in outer space by rocket, include scenes of dancers from the Théâtre du Châtelet and acrobats from the Folies-Bergère __An authoritative and comprehensive guide to cinema's first true blockbuster.__