The Extraordinary Voyage

Let's go for a Voyage to the Moon on The Extraordinary Voyage!

This is a documentary about the making of the famous George Melies short movie, one of the first of the kind. We start with the slow progression of film in France, and how George made trick movies (with, to our eyes, very obvious tricks), and then made a film about a dream of a trip to the Moon. And then other people in America made bank off pirated versions of his film. But that wasn't the only films he made, and indeed he did make others, and here's the thing... back in the early 1900s... he, and others, made films in colour! (Hand painted afterwards.) An old colour print was found, and the end of documentary is about restoring that film and recreating missing moments, and coming up with a complete film.

Which we then saw. With a live accompaniment of electronica music. I'm not sure it needed to be in colour, but it was nice to see, and the film still works.

It's a fun movie, and the documentary definitely reflects that concept.

[END]