Trip to the Moon - Movie Review Example

FILM REVIEW: A VISIT TO THE MOON By Name Lecturer: course: University: Date A brief introduction In the 1902 film by Georges Méliès, ‘Trip to the moon’, the film director uses approximately a quarter of an hour to display what some have called a magnificent portrayal of imagination in the pre-motion picture era of the early 20th century (Hammond, 1974). In a series of shots with varying lengths, Méliès portrays how a group of scientists prepare for a trip to the moon; design a cannon-shot jet; fly to the moon and return back to earth. The following essay reviews the first shot in the film and it seeks to base its analysis on the idea of montage (a theory of machinic editing and acting) as the conceptual tool. Events The first shot displays on the screen after the film’s opening card and it reveals a group of eight, or so, men and three women in a large room that looks like a lecture hall. The men appear to be discussing with each other, though it is evident that their discussions are on different topics, akin to the kind that students have before the class begins. There is a carpet on the floor and three wooden benches on the right side of the hall just behind the men. The hall has a pillar on both sides and a fleet of stairs leading to a door between the pillars. On the left pillar, in the mid-section, there is a carved orrery, whereas on the right pillar, there is a three dimensional model of the globe. There is a telescope on the upper part of the building, which focuses on a moon in the sky outside. At the front of the hall, there is a black board mounted on the wall, on which there is a drawing of what appears to be the earth and the moon. All of the men, save one heavily bearded old man sitting alone behind every body, are standing while the ladies are seated with a desk in front of them (Dirks, 2007). A lady in boots, a pair of trousers, and a cap marches in, issues a brief command and walks away as urgently as she came in. The men line themselves in two rows and are soon joined by another group of men who remove their caps for the men and bow for the ladies as a gesture of greeting before making a new front row. A group of six lady servants in uniform enter with telescopes in hand, which they immediately hand over to the men who just came in before leaving the scene. An elderly man comes in dressed in a long robe and a hat, who bows in front of the ceremony and heads straight to the pulpit at the front of the hall. He stands adjacent to a blackboard mounted on the wall and behind the ladies, who are themselves sitting in front of the pulpit, which is itself mounted on the ground. At this point, he signals the men with telescopes and, lifting their telescopes up, the men find themselves carrying stools, on which they sit as the lecture begins. The lecturer introduces his intention to design a jet in which he would like them to make a trip to the moon and makes several remarks. He then uses a piece of chalk to illustrate his point by drawing a jet on the earth surface a connecting line between the earth and the moon. There is a charade as men engage in a form of intellectual dispute, which turns physical as some men completely disagree with the lecturer. In a fit of rage, the lecturer throws his lecture notes at the men and wallows in anguish, obviously disappointed with the cold reception of his proposal. However, he makes a deal with some of the men who agree with him, at which point a group of servants come in with dust coats and hand them over to the men. They quickly wear the dust coats and exit the hall to go and start building the jet they will need for their mission. Analysis The events in this first shot are a clear evidence of the director’s ingenuity at using montage to create a sequential – almost seamless – flow of pictures to create motion. There are several elements of the shot that can help the viewer understand the progress of the film, even though it is self-evident that, without any sound (especially audible dialog), a lot of meaning is lost even to the astute student of literature (Frazer, 1979). Nevertheless, the first element easily identifiable is the suggestion that this ceremony is a scientific set up. One of the functions of montage is to condense information, which it does by cramming together several instruments associated with astronomy and space. A set up of an orrery, a globe, a telescope, and a chalk board with items belonging to the solar system quickly transports the viewer’s imagination to the scientific world of astronomy. In order to bring the viewer’s focus to important features of the frame, the director uses a radial perspective in which diagonal lines are inclined towards the center of the frame. Everything, from the stairs to the telescope and the drawing on the board, to the edges of the table, are pointing towards the center, where they all connect to create science. Secondly, montage is a technique by which artists compress time in ways otherwise deemed impossible. In this shot, the director uses images that rapidly succeed each other to tell a tale of science and magic at the same time. This happens when the men carrying telescopes, thus making them perceived astronomers, raise their hands and lo! The camera is stopped, time is frozen, and telescopes are transformed into stools – a feat only possible with magic. On the other hand, time is stretched by use of illusions and emphasis more than by elaborate discussions. For example, the group applauds or denounces points with exaggerated body language to make the viewer flow with the set. There are no close up shots in which an individual dominates the scene to offer any point, neither is there time for such a shot. The third element of montage that defines itself in this set is condensation of space. In the events leading to their flight to space, the artists make arrangements that are normally un-ideal such a limited space and time. It is impossible to imagine that the astronomers actually discussed, agreed upon, and consented to flying to the moon in a bullet fired from a massive gun, more like a cannon, as is revealed in the later screen shots. Just as the other two elements, space, as an element of matter and as an element of art, has been condensed to its extreme limits in this shot, Final connections The use of montage to compress time makes it impossible for the film to give attention to individual items or characters in the film, as is the case with modern films. The result of this is lack of close up shots in which important features like the leader’s face and the diagram on the board are not fully captured to enable further scrutiny. Moreover, it is because of this that the crowd is simply that, a crowd. Without any special qualities, such as clear-cut shots that can be used to identify boarders, it is impossible to make out each astronomer individually, or to distinguish the leader from the rest. In addition, the character must be forgiven for their magic tricks in the scene because of its ambiguity in understanding the overall theme. On one hand, it could be a simple magic act which shows the astronomers’ extra-humans’ capabilities that borders wizardry. On the other hand, it might be a show of the ability of the scientists to use their skills and ingenuity in science to transform objects into other objects. Whatever, it is, it clearly captures the sense of imagination of the viewer, and shows the director’s capability to define fiction. Science fiction, and not absurdity, may also be at play when the astronomers imagine that they could shoot themselves to the moon using a bullet aimed directly at the moon as observed from the earth through a telescope. Several themes come out in this three minute shot, which is crammed with too much information, compressed within too little time and presented in too little space. The first theme is power and influence as seen in the leader’s ability to have his way despite the strong opposition from some of the elites he is addressing. He uses an authoritarian approach to the matter when people start getting out of hand in the rampage that his motion brought. This he does by angrily marching forward and literally picking people wishing to join his team of astronauts, leaving the astronomers to continue wallowing in theory. The shot also portrays the theme of technology and science beyond its time. It is not unknown that the first factual trip to the moon would occur only about four decades later, after scientists developed better technology to facilitate communication and flight. In addition, assuming the telescopes were transformed into stools by some wonder of science, then there is a great display of technology that has not even been discovered to date. It is the same technology that is portrayed in modern movies like transformers and Terminator, in which objects transform themselves into other objects as a result of the “magic of science”. All in all, “A trip to the moon” is an intriguing silent movie that speaks volumes to an audience with the ‘listening eye’, that which sees beyond the obvious. It has been credited as one of the best films of its time, though it made Georges Méliès go bankrupt because the movie was pirated and sold in America before Méliès arrived there. Nonetheless, as Solomon (2012) and Hammond (1974) puts it, the film, and specifically the first shot of the film, shows a great display of what silent picture can achieve with montage. References Dirks, Tim. "A Trip to The Moon". (2007). FilmSite.org. Archived from the original on 17 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-08 Frazer, John (1979), Artificially Arranged Scenes: The Films of Georges Méliès, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., ISBN 0816183686 Hammond, Paul (1974), Marvellous Méliès, London: Gordon Fraser, p. 141, ISBN 0900406380 Solomon, Matthew (2012), "Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913)/Georges Méliès Encore: New Discoveries (1896-1911)", Moving Image 12 (2): 187–192, Read More