Template:POTD/2022-09-01
A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès and released on 1 September 1902. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and its 1870 sequel Around the Moon, the silent film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. Its ensemble cast of French theatrical performers is led by Méliès himself as the main character, Professor Barbenfouillis. The film features the overtly theatrical style for which Méliès became famous. In an iconic shot, the astronomers' capsule hits the Man in the Moon in the eye, a visual pun on the expression dans l'œil (literally 'in the eye'), the French equivalent of the English 'bullseye'.Film credit: Georges Méliès