Georges Méliès in culture

Georges Méliès

The life and works of the French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861–1938), including his famous short film A Trip to the Moon, have been referenced many times in creative works, including the following examples.

General

• Le Grand Méliès (1952): The life of Georges Méliès is told in this biodrama, directed by Georges Franju. André Méliès plays the part of his own father.

• In Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 film, La Chinoise, Guillaume (Jean-Pierre Léaud) prefaces a lecture on current events with a discussion of who, in French cinema, was the true originator of the filming of current events, the Lumière brothers or Méliès. Guillaume makes the argument that Méliès, rather than the Lumières, was the true originator of current event films in French cinema.^[1]

• Queen's 1995 music video "Heaven for Everyone" features clips from Méliès' Le Voyage dans la Lune and The Impossible Voyage.^[2]

• The music video for "Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins is a tribute to Méliès and A Trip to the Moon.^[3] It has been called one of the greatest music videos of all time.^[4]

• In 2003 The New York Guitar Festival commissioned the jazz composer/guitarist Bill Frisell to compose scores for five early films by Georges Méliès, including A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). Bill Frisell's Trio presented the world premiere of the scores in January 2004 at two concerts taking place at the New York Guitar Festival. The performances were later broadcast on WNYC New York Public Radio.

• Georges Méliès is a key character in the book and concept album La Mécanique du Cœur of the French rock band Dionysos, released in 2007. He also appears in the animated adaptation released in October 2013.

• Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret features an extensive tribute to Méliès's contribution to cinema history, as well as a description of the "man in the Moon" scene. Martin Scorsese's film adaptation Hugo, with Ben Kingsley playing Méliès, prominently features this scene and includes other scenes from the movie.^[5]

• Montreal rock band God Inc. has paid tribute to Méliès with the song "The Cinemagician". The video for the song features a montage of interesting moments from several of Méliès' films.^[6]

A Trip to the Moon

The space capsule hits the Moon, in the most famous scene from A Trip to the Moon

• Segundo de Chomón's film Excursion to the Moon, released in 1908 for Pathé Frères, is an unauthorized remake of A Trip to the Moon. The film follows Méliès's scenario closely and includes many of its features, with some variations: for example, the Selenites are not vulnerable to umbrellas, but rather appear and disappear at will; the capsule lands inside the Man in the Moon's open mouth rather than hitting its eye; and the Selenite who returns to Earth is a "dancing moon-maiden" who is betrothed at the end of the film to one of the astronomers.^[7] This film has occasionally been misidentified as a work by Méliès.^[8]

• The HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon featured a documentary-style recreation of the filming process during its last episode, titled "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" in honor of Méliès's work.^[9] Méliès was played by Tchéky Karyo.

• The music video for the song "Tonight, Tonight" by the rock band The Smashing Pumpkins is heavily inspired by A Trip to the Moon and replicates its most famous scenes. ^[10]

• Le Voyage Dans La Lune is a 2012 album by French band Air, featuring vocals by Victoria Legrand and Au Revoir Simone. The album is based on and expanded from the score Air provided for the hand-tinted restoration of the film.^[11]

• The trophies given out by Visual Effects Society at their yearly awards ceremony feature the famous shot of the Moon with the rocket in its eye.^[12]

• In the second episode of Futurama, "The Series Has Landed", Lunar Park mascot Crater Face resembles Méliès's "Man in the Moon". Bender embeds his beer bottle in Crater Face's eye after Crater Face attempts to confiscate his alcohol.^[5] In the series finale, "Meanwhile", Crater Face gets another beer bottle embedded in his eye.^[13]

• The 1956 film version of Around the World in Eighty Days features an abridged version of A Trip to the Moon, introduced by Edward R. Murrow, as part of the film's prologue.

• An image of the Man in the Moon can be seen in Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem.

• The image of the Man in the Moon serves as the cover art for The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction, edited by Arthur B. Evans, Istavn Csicsery-Ronay Jr., Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, and Carol McGuirk.

• The production of Katy Perry's performance of her song Wide Awake at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards was based upon Méliès' A Trip To The Moon.

• On August 10, 2013, as part of the ongoing Return of Moon Maid saga, the Dick Tracy strip introduced Méliès whose head looks like the Man in the Moon seen in A Trip to the Moon.^[14]

• In October 2015, the music video for the song "Mess Around" by rock band Cage the Elephant is created using all footage from the film and other Georges Méliès' films.

References

1. The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema by Robert Phillip Kolker (Open Book Publishers, 2009) p. 148.
2. Queen Promo Videos: Heaven For Everyone Ultimate Queen. Retrieved 14 November 2011
3. "12 Best Music Video Movie Homages: Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight". Total Film. April 7, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
4. Stylus Staff (2006-07-20). "Stylus Magazine's Top 100 Music Videos of All Time". StylusMagazine.com. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
5. "A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Did You Know? - Connections". IMDB. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
6. A-J Charron on "The Cinemagician"
7. Solomon, Matthew (2011), "Introduction", in Solomon, Matthew, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon, Albany: State University of New York Press, p. 13, ISBN 9781438435817
8. Méliès, Georges (2010), Georges Méliès: Encore (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 1893967565
9. "From the Earth to the Moon (1998) - Did You Know? - Connections". IMDB. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOG3eus4ZSo
11. Bloomer, Jeffry (2012-02-09). "Restored "A Trip to the Moon" With New Air Soundtrack Opens Friday". filmlinc.com. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
12. "Travel and Transport in Early Cinema". Spectacular Attractions - blog. 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
13. "Craterface". Retrieved 2014-09-10.
14. Dick Tracy comic strip (via GoComics), August 10, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.