The short film ‘A Trip to the Moon’ was created in 1902, during the end of the French industrial revolution. This is evident in two scenes; the capsule building scene and the scene where the men gather on the roof to look for the moon. Firstly, the environment in which the capsule was constructed is very factory-like in appearance. Secondly, all the workers seem to be working on their own parts of the machinery – this is known as specialisation and is a trait among factory workers. Lastly, the view from the top exposes all the exhaust from the factories.
This was the time a lot of things were changing, humanity was moving forward and becoming more advanced. However, despite the depiction of the forward movement of machinery, this short film was still made in 1902 and the (now) outdated social views of the early 20th century are evident at certain points in the movie. For example, women have little to no screen-time throughout the movie – with their only appearance presenting them as show-girl like characters, wearing short-shorts and waving off the “big strong men.”
In today’s standards ‘A Trip to the Moon’ is a very simple production, not achieving even the standard of amateur film makers. However, we cannot compare this piece to the productions created today as it was not made for an audience 100 years in the future. Looking at it from 20th century standards, people would not have seen any form of art/entertainment like this. ‘A Trip to the Moon’ showcased a variety of genres, including: humour, adventure, action, etc. Méilès utilised varying medias and numerous effects to create this intriguing story and capture the unknown wonders of the world beyond ours. Having this visualised form of story-telling had been unprecedented and, although stories of fantasy and horror were not something new, the beginning of the 20th century brought on the development of science fiction – a new genre that explored aliens, robots, and space travel.
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