Georges Méliès in culture

The life and works of the French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861–1938), including his famous short film A Trip to the Moon, have been referenced many times in creative works, including the following examples.

Georges Méliès

General

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A Trip to the Moon

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The space capsule hits the Moon, in the most famous scene from A Trip to the Moon
  • Segundo de Chomón's film Excursion to the Moon, released in 1908 for Pathé Frères, is an unauthorized remake of A Trip to the Moon. The film follows Méliès's scenario closely and includes many of its features, with some variations: for example, the Selenites are not vulnerable to umbrellas, but rather appear and disappear at will; the capsule lands inside the Man in the Moon's open mouth rather than hitting its eye; and the Selenite who returns to Earth is a "dancing moon-maiden" who is betrothed at the end of the film to one of the astronomers.[7] This film has occasionally been misidentified as a work by Méliès.[8]
  • Epcot's Horizons pavilion featured the scenes from the film, including the Moon, during the Jules Verne sequence near the beginning of the ride to highlight how past viewed the future.
  • The HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon featured a documentary-style recreation of the filming process during its last episode, titled "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" in honor of Méliès's work.[9] Méliès was played by Tchéky Karyo.
  • The music video for the song "Tonight, Tonight" by the rock band The Smashing Pumpkins is heavily inspired by A Trip to the Moon and replicates its most famous scenes.[10]
  • Le Voyage Dans La Lune is a 2012 album by French band Air, featuring vocals by Victoria Legrand and Au Revoir Simone. The album is based on and expanded from the score Air provided for the hand-tinted restoration of the film.[11]
  • The trophies given out by Visual Effects Society at their yearly awards ceremony feature the famous shot of the Moon with the rocket in its eye.[12]
  • In the second episode of Futurama, "The Series Has Landed", Luna Park mascot Crater Face resembles Méliès's "Man in the Moon". Bender embeds his beer bottle in Crater Face's eye after Crater Face attempts to confiscate his alcohol.[5] In the series finale, "Meanwhile", Crater Face gets another beer bottle embedded in his eye.[13]
  • The 1956 film version of Around the World in Eighty Days features an abridged version of A Trip to the Moon, introduced by Edward R. Murrow, as part of the film's prologue.
  • An image of the Man in the Moon can be seen in Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem.
  • The image of the Man in the Moon serves as the cover art for The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction, edited by Arthur B. Evans, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, and Carol McGuirk.
  • The production of Katy Perry's performance of her song "Wide Awake" at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards was based upon Méliès' A Trip To The Moon.
  • On August 10, 2013, as part of the ongoing Return of Moon Maid saga, the Dick Tracy strip introduced Méliès whose head looks like the Man in the Moon seen in A Trip to the Moon.[14]
  • In October 2015, the music video for the song "Mess Around" by rock band Cage the Elephant is created using all footage from the film and other Georges Méliès' films.
  • Korean group Seventeen mentions the movie in a verse of their 2019 song "Back it up".
  • German metal festival M'era Luna used the image of the Man in the Moon as their official logo until 2019. More recently, a similar but altered version is used.
  • In the animated series Disenchantment a carnival ride in the third season's Steamland can be seen, shaped after the image of the Man in the Moon.
  • In the Cartoon Network sitcom The Amazing World of Gumball, the iconic scene of the moon is parodied in the episode “The Deal”, when one Nicole brags about her new status of Employee of the Month is by shooting fireworks that spell “Nicole Watterson: Employee of the Month”, but one of the fireworks the moon in the eye while it screams in agony, which also recreates the iconic scene.
  • The ending title sequence for episodes 1-12 of the anime series Lycoris Recoil, pays homage to the film. When Takina Inoue is drawing a rocket in a foggy window during a rainy day, the camera shortly pans upward to show the drawing of the rocket "moving" before "crashing" into the same moon of the aforementioned film.[15]
  • A picture of Méliès flew on board Artemis 1 which orbited the Moon in 2022.[16]
  • Footage of the iconic moon scene is used in the 2024 film Lisa Frankenstein.
  • The Moon was featured during the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.

References

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  1. ^ The Altering Eye: Contemporary International Cinema by Robert Phillip Kolker (Open Book Publishers, 2009) p. 148.
  2. ^ Queen Promo Videos: Heaven For Everyone Ultimate Queen. Retrieved 14 November 2011
  3. ^ "12 Best Music Video Movie Homages: Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight". Total Film. April 7, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  4. ^ Stylus Staff (2006-07-20). "Stylus Magazine's Top 100 Music Videos of All Time". StylusMagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-29. Retrieved 2007-04-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ a b "A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Did You Know? - Connections". IMDb. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  6. ^ "A-J Charron on "The Cinemagician"". Archived from the original on 2015-02-22. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  7. ^ Solomon, Matthew (2011), "Introduction", in Solomon, Matthew (ed.), Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon, Albany: State University of New York Press, p. 13, ISBN 9781438435817
  8. ^ Méliès, Georges (2010), Georges Méliès: Encore (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 978-1893967564
  9. ^ "From the Earth to the Moon (1998) - Did You Know? - Connections". IMDb. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  10. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "The Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight (Official Music Video)". YouTube. 2 August 2011.
  11. ^ Bloomer, Jeffry (2012-02-09). "Restored "A Trip to the Moon" With New Air Soundtrack Opens Friday". filmlinc.com. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  12. ^ "Travel and Transport in Early Cinema". Spectacular Attractions - blog. 2009-11-21. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  13. ^ "Craterface". Retrieved 2014-09-10.
  14. ^ Dick Tracy comic strip (via GoComics), August 10, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
  15. ^ Imgur. "Lycoris Recoil pays homage to the godfather of science fiction cinema". Imgur. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  16. ^ Julien (3 April 2023). "Going on a Moon safari". European Space Agency. Retrieved 3 April 2023.