Excursion to the Moon

Excursion dans la lune
Directed bySegundo de Chomón
Based onA Trip to the Moon
by Georges Méliès
Produced byFerdinand Zecca
Production
company
Release date
  • 1908 (1908)
Running time
180 meters[1]
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Excursion to the Moon (French: Excursion dans la lune) is a 1908 French silent trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón. The production was supervised by Ferdinand Zecca, designed by V. Lorant-Heilbronn, and released by Pathé Frères.[1] The film is an unauthorized remake, and an almost shot-by-shot copy, of Georges Méliès's 1902 film A Trip to the Moon.[2]

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.[2] This film has occasionally been misidentified as a work by Méliès.[3]

Of the film's 180 meters, 72 were colorized[1] using a Pathé stencil process.[2]

Excursion dans la lune (1908)
  1. ^ a b c Centre d'études foréziennes (2000), Catalogue des films projetés à Saint-Étienne avant la première guerre mondiale, Université de Saint-Etienne, p. 103, ISBN 2862721824
  2. ^ a b c Solomon, Matthew (2011), "Introduction", in Solomon, Matthew (ed.), Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 12–13, ISBN 9781438435817
  3. ^ Méliès, Georges (2010), Georges Méliès: Encore (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 978-1893967564