This is the first entry in a series of posts that will feature my favorite movies through the decades.

I decided to start with the 1900s and 1910s as separate posts. However, after starting my initial draft, I had to put it on hold after realizing I really had no idea what my favorite films of the 1900s or 1910s even are. 😜 I’m sure this is not an uncommon issue among film lovers born in the latter part of the 20th century.

So I decided to combine the first two decades, since the only film I could think of off the top of my head was A Trip to the Moon, written and directed by Georges Méliès and released in 1902.

According to Wikipedia:

A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. 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 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. 

George Méliès, Wikipedia.org

It’s interesting that Wikipedia classifies it as “adventure.” I think of it as fantasy/early science fiction. This is a lovely film, and like so many early silents in the fantasy genre, it has an ethereal, other-worldly quality. It’s just a delightful escape.

Incidentally, I also ran across this version:

Turns out that the French band, Air (one of my favorites!), actually composed music for a restored color version of the film and released a “soundtrack album” back in 2012. How did I ever miss that?!

According to this article from NPR from back in 2011:

Originally released in black and white, a rare hand-colored version of the film was discovered in Barcelona in 1993. Restoration work was completed earlier this year.

With that version of the film fully restored, Air’s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel were asked to write a new, modern score

All Songs Considered, NPR.com

So I went on the hunt for a copy of Air’s album, La Voyage Dans La Lune, which contains a CD of the score packaged with a DVD of the film, so I’m excited to be able to own that soon.