Stephan Graf v. Bothmer: GEORGES MÉLIÈS - A TRIP TO THE MOON

Méliès's unbridled passion for visual experimentation is reflected in Stephan von Bothmer's drive to constantly discover new sounds and musical structures. With his CineTronium, he created the instrument for this exploration.

"A Trip to the Moon" is a firework display of cinematic inventiveness: A cannon shot hurls a space capsule into the moon's face, astronomers become acrobats, and stage sets transform into cosmic landscapes. Méliès blends theater, magic, and special effects into a then entirely new medium—cinema as a fairground wonder, a dream factory, and a science fiction laboratory. The famous shot in which the moon carries a projectile in its eye is one of the most iconic images in film history.

Méliès's other fantastical films breathe the spirit of the impossible. We travel to the North Pole in strange flying machines, through fairy and devil tricks, underwater visions, and visions of hell. Every scene is a surprise, every transformation a new wonder. You can feel the desire to shatter the boundaries of reality and transport the audience to a world where everything seems possible. These films are both naive and highly artificial—and remind us that cinema was originally a magical act.

Méliès invented numerous film tricks, such as stop-motion animation. But his most important invention is so fundamental that we hardly notice it anymore: It was Méliès who first told a story through film, thus inventing "narrative cinema."
[Georges Méliès, F 1988-1904]