The Extraordinary Georges Méliès: A Trip to the Moon + The Extraordinary Voyage

"The gorgeous restoration of Méliès’s masterpiece A Trip to the Moon that was shown at the Cannes and Telluride film festival was surely a cinematic highlight of the year, maybe the century." A.O. SCOTT, NEW YORK TIMES

Cinema’s great mythos has the art form developing in two great parallel (but in fact often intertwining) streams, with Louis Lumière as the “father” of film reality or documentary, and compatriot Georges Méliès as the “father” of film fiction, fantasy, and illusion.

Martin Scorsese’s marvellous recent movie Hugo has revived interest in the magician and movie pioneer Méliès, and in his iconic 1902 milestone A Trip to the Moon, Méliès’s most famous film fantasy. Hugo excerpted footage from a recently rediscovered and carefully restored rare, original hand-painted colour version of A Trip to the Moon. That restoration premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Pacific Cinémathèque is pleased to bring it to Vancouver, along with The Extraordinary Voyage, Serge Bromberg (Inferno) and Eric Lange’s new documentary about the Méliès masterpiece and its remarkable resurrection and restoration, after 109 years, in colour.

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A Trip to the Moon 
France 1902. Director: Georges Méliès
Cast: Georges Méliès, Henri Delannoy, Bleuette Bernon, François Lallement

VANCOUVER PREMIERE! ► “A landmark event: the hand-painted colour version of Méliès’s legendary A Trip to the Moon, unseen for 109 years until its glorious new restoration by Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. In the first outer-space adventure in the history of cinema, six members of the Astronomers' Club set off on an expedition to the moon, encounter the Selenites and flee their King, and return home to a triumphant parade. A Trip to the Moon will be screened with a new soundtrack by the French band Air” (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hand-tinted colour, Blu-ray Disc, silent with musical score. 16 mins.

The Extraordinary Voyage 
(Le voyage extraordinaire)
France 2011. Directors: Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange
With: Michel Gondry, Tim Burton, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Michel Hazanavicius, Costa-Gavras

VANCOUVER PREMIERE! ► “Cinema’s most unforgettable image is perhaps that of the Man in the Moon being poked in the eye by a rocket ship. The magical Georges Méliès, one of the celebrated heroes of Martin Scorsese’s new movie Hugo, was the creator of that image, and his Trip to the Moon thrilled audiences in 1902. Now, thanks to one of the most technically sophisticated and expensive restorations in film history, A Trip to the Moon can thrill audiences once again in color. This fascinating documentary charts the film’s voyage across the century and into the next millennium, from the fantastical Méliès’s production in 1902 to the astonishing rediscovery of a nitrate print in color in 1993 to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. Interviews with some of contemporary cinema’s most imaginative filmmakers attest to Méliès’ enduring significance” (Museum of Modern Art, New York). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in English and French with English subtitles. 60 mins.

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