Considered the first science fiction movie ever made, this short silent film presents a group of scientists flying to the moon, encountering some hostile natives, and making a triumphant return to earth.The tone is comical, with one famous scene showing the rocket lodging in the eye of the Man in the Moon (Georges Melies, who also plays a professor). Clever and charming, A Trip to the Moon makes use of painted back drops and large props, and employs such special effects as superimposition, and considering when it is made is quite marvelous. A group of what can only be described as bathing beauties push the rocket into the chamber or cannon from which it is fired at the moon! Melies was an extremely inventive early filmmaker who pointed the path for many film artists to come. [The new score for this remastered film includes strains from what sounds like Massenet's opera Manon.]
Verdict: A short silent classic. ***.
