An Impossible Voyage (1904) Le voyage à travers l'impossible (original title)

Director:

Georges Méliès

Writers:

Adolphe d'Ennery (play)
Georges Méliès
(more)

Release Date:

October 1904 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Adventure | 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

Directed by
Georges Méliès

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Adolphe d'Ennery		play "Le Voyage a travers l'Impossible"
Georges Méliès
Jules Verne		play "Le Voyage a travers l'Impossible"

Produced by
Georges Méliès	....	producer

Production Design by
Georges Méliès

Production Companies

• Georges Méliès
• Star-Film

Distributors

• Star-Film (1904) (France) (theatrical)
• Georges Méliès (1904) (USA) (theatrical)
• S. Lubin (1904) (USA) (theatrical)
• Kleine Optical Company (1904) (USA) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (1995) (USA) (laserdisc)
• Kino Video

Also Known As:

"Le voyage à travers l'impossible" - France (original title)
"The Impossible Voyage" - International (English 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: For a few seconds, a pole can clearly be seen holding the anthropomorphic sun up.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Georges Méliès: Cinema Magician (1978)

Strongly inspired by his earlier film LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE, but still very much worth watching

Director Georges Méliès was an absolutely brilliant early filmmaker and innovator. His camera tricks, use of a complex plot and sets, and fun-loving fantasy elements in his films made him the greatest film maker of his day. While I recently read that THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (from Edison Inc.) was the "first full-length film", this simply isn't true, as Méliès' LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE (1902) preceded it and was a much more complex film--featuring amazing sets and lots of laughs as a group of scientists take a trip to the moon and meet the evil moon men! Only a year later, in an attempt to outdo his previous success, Méliès made this film about another group of wacky scientists who take a trip to the Sun as well as under the sea!! And, while the original film was a very long 14 minutes (that WAS full-length in its day), this one is 20--making it probably the longest film of its day.

While the new film is obviously strongly derived from the previous Méliès epic, compared to all other films of the day it is still brilliant and not even close to being matched. BUT, my score of 9 is more a way to indicate that it isn't quite as good as his film about the Moon. But, it is still very, very watchable and cute even today (something that can't be said of most other films of the age).

If you want to see this film online, go to Google and type in "Méliès" and then click the video button for a long list of his films that are viewable without special software.