Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès, 1902

with Georges Méliès, Victor André and Bleuette Bernon

A group of men travel to the moon by being shot in a capsule from a giant cannon. They are captured by moon-men, escape, and return to the earth. Soundtrack by Air.

I watched a documentary on Georges Méliès and the creation of the movie, the reconstitution of the shooting and restauration of the film (Le Voyage extraordinaire by Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange, 2011). Very interesting, talking about cinema and technology, a true lesson. The documentary was followed by Le Voyage dans la Lune, in its fullest version, with original soundtrack by Air. I was expecting better, for some reason. Because of the extract I had already seen in the documentary, but mostly because I really like Air and felt they had done the job half way. Anyway, still a masterpiece.
Ok, coming back to it, the story is a little bit surreal, naive in a way, but it was made 110 years ago, so our vision of the trip to space has definitely changed. It is fascinating how the special effect were ingenious. I saw it colorized from the original version, it is another trip to take. How meticulous this was. And the final effect is quite convincing!
By the way, for those who wonder, yes, it is about the Georges Méliès of "Hugo"!