"The Eclipse: The Courtship of the Sun and Moon" is a black-and-white silent film from 1907, even if you will find a few versions where they added sound or color afterward. But if you look at the year, you know what to expect here. And at the maker as Méliès was really the number 1 filmmaker during this really early era for the movies. I personally would say that these nine minutes here are not among his best and certainly not on par with his most known moon movie. It sure was a frequent subject back then and this fascination should go on for a long time afterward mounting in the race to space even. Okay drifting away now, no pun intended. And even if I did not like it that much overall, I think it is interesting to see how they are moments and scenes that may have inspired comedies in the century to follow. Oh yeah let me say that I watched the 9-minute version. I see there is also one at 6. Overall, really only the most hardcore silent film fans and Méliès fans should give this one a look. Even if it is among the master's most known works as of today, I believe a great deal of his gigantic body of work is superior to this one here and that's why I give it a thumbs-down.

A white-bearded teacher dressed somewhat like a wizard informs his students of an imminent eclipse. He uses a chalkboard to illustrate the path of the sun and the moon. The students do not seem very excited. The teacher provides telescopes to the class, and there is more interest. He goes to watch the eclipse on an upper level. Hopefully, the teacher doesn't think this will get him a closer look. We see the eclipse through the teacher's lens. A feminine-looking Moon passes in front of a masculine-looking Sun. The Moon seems aroused. The Sun looks like it has a headache. Still, the forces of nature bring them together. Later, many little celestial objects are born. Lastly, the teacher loses his senses.****** L'eclipse du soleil en pleine lune (1907) Georges Melies ~ Georges Melies

Considering the brief running time of this bizarre and delightful little film, it's impressive how much detail, incident, and humor director Georges Méliès managed to pack into it. I've seen it three or four times now and catch something new every time.The opening scene is strongly reminiscent of Méliès' most famous work, "A Trip to the Moon," made five years earlier. Once again we find ourselves in an ancient classroom of some sort, with benches arranged before a lectern, and once again the audience members march into the room like military cadets. But this time, instead of Victorian astronauts-in-training, we see a group of young astronomy students carrying telescopes across their shoulders like rifles, wearing costumes that suggest this story might be set in the 17th century. The white-bearded professor enters (once again played by Méliès himself) wearing the familiar star-bedecked robe and carrying himself with much pompous authority. This time, however, low comedy devices are employed to deflate the lecturer's pomposity: during his lecture the scribe falls asleep, a prankish student pins a paper doll to the back of his robe, etc. etc. Yet when it's time for the eclipse the students are genuinely excited, and eagerly rush to the window for a better look while the professor races upstairs to watch from his observatory.As an earlier poster remarked, the eclipse sequence that follows really must be seen to be believed. We look on in amazement as The Sun --here depicted as an ugly, nasty-looking demon with pointed ears-- sidles up behind the coy, smooth-faced Moon and proceeds to inspire an unmistakable orgasm, as The Moon's facial expressions convey the full range of erotic pleasure. To call this "suggestive" doesn't do it justice: this is a sex scene without the sex, no two ways about it. One thing I still can't determine after several viewings is whether the actor playing The Moon is a mannish-looking woman or an effeminate man. Usually in art and literature the moon is portrayed as feminine (our "man in the moon" notwithstanding), but whichever the case, Miss Luna certainly looks ready for a cigarette and a nap afterward.Méliès follows his coup-de-cinema with a charming sequence in which the planets Venus, Mars, Saturn, etc., are also portrayed as personified characters (ones that behave more decorously than the Sun and Moon, mind you), after which we're treated to a meteor shower. This brings us back to the elderly professor, who has become so excited by the astronomical display that he tumbles out the observatory window into a rain barrel. The film concludes with a slapstick coda as the old man's students and assistants awkwardly attempt to dry him with blankets.The conventional wisdom concerning Georges Méliès is that his best days were already past by 1905 or thereabouts and that his subsequent films were dull and repetitive, but this one at any rate is far from dull. In fact I'd rank "The Eclipse" with the man's most delightful films, and recommend it to anyone interested in early cinema. Happily, the print recently restored for the Kino series 'The Movies Begin' is clear and sharp, and in far better shape over all than most of the director's other surviving works.

In this marvellous Melies fantasy, an eccentric astronomer is overwhelmed by excitement at the approaching eclipse. His students make fun of him initially but then become excited too as the moon approaches the sun.Through the astronomer's telescope we see the man in the moon winking at the man in the sun. Both begin to lick their lips and wriggle their tongues with excitement as they draw closer together. Finally the sun goes behind the moon, and the man in the moon's face suggests orgasm!!Finally they part again looking exhausted and satisfied. And the sky explodes in an orgy of sperm-like stars, each one carrying a scantily clad woman or man.Surely this must be the first gay love scene ever put on film. It's hard to believe it's happening in a 1907 movie. You've gotta see it to believe it.Great mix of gorgeous special effects, slapstick comedy and eroticism. One of Melies best!