This was great fun. For one thing, Melies creates an amazing moon. It has all sorts of expression. It also has a kind of nasty grin that shows it's up to no good. The story involves the Astronomer figuring out a way to go to the moon, but while he is doing that, the moon comes to him. It devours his property. It spits out people and junk and terrorizes the old man. It is very clever and longer than previous efforts. What a gift this man made to cinema.

Maybe the first example of science fiction and fantasy in a narrative form from the pioneer of early cinema Georges Melies as he plays an astronomer studying in an observatory when a devil figure appears then a woman who sends the devil away.The astronomer draws a globe on a blackboard which starts to move, when he looks through the telescope the moon appears with a large face like the face later used in Thomas the Tank Engine cartoons and it eats the astronomer's telescope.Then small men come through the mouth of the moon and then it goes back in the sky and then the moon becomes a crescent when another figure in the shape of a lady appears.This is just part of the content in a short film just over three minutes long that has set design, characters in costumes, special effects and use of editing as well as surreal imagery. The editing is jumpy but again it is Melies that was showing the early promise of cinematic illusion.

This is another very early (19th century still!!) and simply MAGNIFICENT example of Georges Melies' magic: a queer 'science fiction' story (certainly one of the first EVER) about a scientist (played by Melies himself) who is hooked on his researches about the moon - which seems to take its revenge: first it comes alive on the drawing board, and when he looks at it through its telescope, it comes REALLY close to him, literally only 'a meter away', as the title says; and starts eating up everything in reach...Here we have the great pleasure to enjoy more of the magician's cinematographic tricks he knew so perfectly well: people and things vanishing and reappearing, the drawn settings seemingly coming alive... THOSE are the 'little' shorts (with a running time of only about 3 minutes then) which led to today's movies with their special computer effects and almost unbelievable scenes - something that EVERY film fan should see in order to get to know the ORIGINS OF TODAY'S CINEMA!

Astronomer's Dream, The (1898) *** (out of 4) aka La Lune a un metre An astronomer is in his office working when the devil and a woman appear to him and this sets off a strange dream, which includes the moon attacking him. This is another enjoyable film from Meiles as we get to see various magic tricks including the familiar gags of the astronomer going to sit down only to have the chair disappear. What really stands out in this film is the attack by the moon, which is perfectly done and leads to several laughs. I love Melies' design of the moon making it something to fear with its evil eyes and mouth. The special effects are quite nice throughout. This is certainly a good place for newbies to start.