Le voyage à travers l'impossible (1904)

Director:

Georges Méliès

Writers:

Georges Méliès (writer)
Jules Verne (play)

Release Date:

October 1904 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey...

Plot Keywords:

Sun | Stop Motion | Train | U Boat | Submarine

Cast

Georges Méliès

Also Known As:

An Impossible Voyage (International: English title)
The Impossible Voyage (International: English title)
The Voyage Across the Impossible (International: English title) (informal literal title)
The Voyage Through the Impossible (International: English title) (informal literal title)

Runtime:

24 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (hand-colored)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Georges Méliès

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: A pole can clearly be seen holding the man in the sun up.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Georges Méliès: Cinema Magician (1978)

From the Moon to the Sun

Having produced a blockbuster in 1903 in which a group of scientists journeyed to the moon, Melies tried to outdo himself the following year by having another group of manic scientists travel to the sun. He made this film longer and stencilled it in colour, and the outcome is quite astounding. To think that Melies was producing lengthy masterpieces like this while contemporary filmmakers were still experimenting with one-shot narratives goes to show how far ahead of his time Melies really was - which makes his downfall less than a decade later all the sadder. Melies fills the screen with colour with sets sometimes similar to the expressionist sets of the German masterpieces of the late teens and 20s, and fills it also with movement. Not one moment passes when there isn't something to look at. Although this film is not as widely known as Le Voyage dans la lune for my money it surpasses it in terms of exuberance and imagination.