The Astronomer's Dream; or, The Man in the Moon
1898 · 3m · France
Directed by Georges Méliès
Genres: comedy, fantasy, silent
An astronomer falls asleep and dreams of fantastical lunar visions: the Moon appears as a giant face that devours his telescope, a fairy queen materializes, and chalkboard drawings spring to life in this pioneering trick film.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Méliès trick film with a Moon eating a telescope — three minutes of theatrical magic that predates Trip to the Moon. The YouTube link's dead but the idea isn't.
An early Melies trick film that already contains the lunar iconography he would refine in A Trip to the Moon. The cited URL is dead, which is a regrettable practical limitation on an otherwise foundational text.
Méliès four years before A Trip to the Moon, already using substitution splices and stage pyrotechnics in tandem — the chalkboard-comes-to-life beat is early metamorphosis cinema. YouTube video is dead, but the film's place in the Méliès chronology is fixed.
Reviews
A wonderful showcase for Méliès' early experiments in trick photography, including well-done substitution splices and a clever animation scene where images on the astronomer's blackboard come to life.
The movie was a hit in France, and inspired numerous ripoffs, not least from rivaling film company Pathé. A sophisticated narrative and production for its time.