Georges Méliès’s Le Voyage dans la Lune was quite an interesting film for me to watch and definitely a very different experience compared to watching films today. In many ways I anticipated what the film would look like and how it might be different from what exists today, but I was also quite surprised by certain elements. I think the look and pace of films today is definitely significantly different from Méliès’s film. For example, today’s films condense a much more complex plot into shorter amounts of time, and naturally due to the availability of more advanced technology, the visual effects of modern films are much more believable and true to how such sci-fi elements might look in reality.
Fig 1 – Still from Le Voyage dans La Lune
However, I do think it is important to acknowledge the intricacy that Méliès achieved in his sets despite the technological limitations (as seen in Fig 1). The depth and complexity of the landscape that Méliès curated was something that I definitely did not expect to see in a 118 year old film. I think since these sets were painted, their detailed nature provides insight into how much effort went into creating the film prior to actually filming anything and how involved of an endeavour it was a century ago, when today I think it is much the opposite wherein most of the heavy-lifting in sci-fi films actually happens post-production, and it can be accomplished by what I assume to be a much smaller team of people.
Moreover, in reading the linked article on brainknowsbetter.com I also learned that the fact that the film was notoriously popular in its time relied on the fact that the ideas that Méliès had explored in the film were ones that were already prevalent in pop-culture at the time, which was something that while I subconsciously had registered, hadn’t really considered in-depth. It has really made me realise how, even in modern film, the capability of people to understand what is being conveyed depends significantly on them having encountered the ideas presented before. Moreover, this distinction also highlights how watching this film may seem strange or odd to people in the modern era, as being accustomed to more complex narratives and an abundance of editing to enhance films, Le Voyage dans La Lune may seem almost childish in a sense, wherein the slow pace and extravagant sets and costuming may seem like they lack the “seriousness” of modern sci-fi films. Having understood this, I think it has definitely impacted how I approach my own creative process and how I will create works in the future that I want other people to comprehend, as it definitely underscores the fact that the audience’s own experiences and ideas play a significant role in how they interpret a work, and what they take away from it.
Provided References:
Le Voyage dans La Lune – Georges Meliese
Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon Reveals the Psychology of Film
Smashing Pumpkins Tonight
Work from:
27th Oct 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader
