The Astronomer's Dream (1898)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This was great fun. For one thing, Melies creates an amazing moon. It has all sorts of expression. It also has a kind of nasty grin that shows it's up to no good. The story involves the Astronomer figuring out a way to go to the moon, but while he is doing that, the moon comes to him. It devours his property. It spits out people and junk and terrorizes the old man. It is very clever and longer than previous efforts. What a gift this man made to cinema.

Fantastic short film from pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès. A great companion piece to his later classic, A Trip to the Moon (1902). That name was also given to this one when released in the US. The original (and more fitting) name is The Astronomer's Dream. The story to this is an astronomer who looks like Merlin is visited by a woman and a demon and has dreams about the moon. The special effects and sets are really cool, especially when you consider this film's age. Méliès was ahead of his time in many ways. Definitely worth a look for anyone into film history or silent shorts or anyone with a few minutes to spare. I can't imagine anyone seeing this and regretting it. Well, a-holes maybe.

Of course I'm talking about his uncommonly long short film "Trip to the Moon". The animated moon looks exactly the same here and the astronomer reminds the viewer as well of the ones building the rocket to set foot on the moon. The video quality is rather low early on, even for 1898, but quickly gets better. It's packed with fantasy references, occasionally even almost a horror film and it's surely lots of action happening for its only three minutes running time.The moon swallowing and spitting all kinds of things and children is quite a horror fantasy. I'd have panicked and run out as soon as I could if I'd run into that. Or maybe not with those stunning women the moon transforms into near the end. Certainly an interesting watch, maybe together with "Le voyage dans la lune" from 4 years later and it offers even some approaches it does not in that one like the constant switching of shapes and sizes while the 1902 film was really more of a scientific sci-fi movie.

Astronomer's Dream, The (1898) *** (out of 4) aka La Lune a un metre An astronomer is in his office working when the devil and a woman appear to him and this sets off a strange dream, which includes the moon attacking him. This is another enjoyable film from Meiles as we get to see various magic tricks including the familiar gags of the astronomer going to sit down only to have the chair disappear. What really stands out in this film is the attack by the moon, which is perfectly done and leads to several laughs. I love Melies' design of the moon making it something to fear with its evil eyes and mouth. The special effects are quite nice throughout. This is certainly a good place for newbies to start.