Matthew B
The Impossible Voyage is essentially a variation on A Trip to the Moon, with the same plot, only this time the explorers improbably visit the sun instead. Perhaps I should say impossibly, since Méliès himself does. As in past works, he presents the science content with a mixture of awe and irreverence, but with insouciant disregard for facts or plausibility.
The film lacks intertitles but Méliès helpfully explained elsewhere that the scientist is an engineer Mabouloff (Crazyloff if we render it in English, and played, of course, by Méliès), who proposes travelling around the world by various means.
This time the trip seems more like a tourist attraction, complete with passengers and luggage. The journey begins by train, and heads to the Swiss Alps. A luggage cart crashes through a building, disrupting diners. Next they use an automobile, which somehow crosses over the snowy mountains, but in a bizarre twist it crashes and our heroes are hospitalised.
A second attempt to cross over the mountains leads to an even more unexpected result when the balloons attached to the automobile cause it to fly off into outer space. Stars, shooting stars and comets sail past, and our adventurers end by reaching the sun. Like the moon in A Trip to the Moon, the sun has a face. Instead of landing in the sun's eye, the travellers pass through its mouth, and are swallowed up, causing the sun to assume a dyspeptic look.
Despite its many similarities to A Trip to the Moon, there is much to enjoy. The sets are far more open and spacious. There are more scenes than usual (23 in all), making this Méliès' longest film up to this point. This was Méliès' most technologically advanced film at this point, and employed moving, hand-painted sets, machinery, animation and pyrotechnics.
There is also more humour this time round. There was plenty in earlier films, but the tone of The Impossible Voyage is one of pure comedy, and Méliès employs a good deal of caricature and slapstick to achieve his effects. Perhaps it is not surprising that this was one of the most popular films of the age. It is enormous fun.
I wrote an appreciation of four Méliès films (including this one) on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2020/02/07/journeys-with-melies-the-narrative-movies-of-georges-melies/
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
08/25/23
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Audience Member
While not as charming as A Trip to the Moon (1902), Melies does keep things buoyant in this magical little road trip.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
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Audience Member
Amazing work by Georges Melies more than 100 years ago. Melies was one of the first to realize the potential of films and transforms them into motion picture. Although it could be argued that the story is too bizarre, but I believe it is precisely due to this reason that The Impossible Voyage is so great. What was previously deemed as impossible can now be produced on screen, thus people can now realize their wildest dreams. From the complexity of the settings and the chore of colouring all the films, it is hard not to appreciate the hard work put in by Melies and his team. The Impossible Voyage is the showcase of dream and dedication, and should be an inspiration to all.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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Audience Member
Similar to Méliès' film "A Trip to the Moon" this silent adventure film is tons of fun. It has Méliès wonderful style, his sense of fun and adventure, and his fantastic cinematic tricks. It is what the magic of movies is all about. I really do enjoy Méliès work, and find it has something completely timeless about it. It is a shame that Thomas Edison ruined him financially, he made a tremendous impact on cinema for years.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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Audience Member
if you've seen 'hugo' u might want to check out some méliès films for yourself and this one is on youtube http://youtu.be/DmSZ3uoyLGk
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
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Audience Member
2 years after George Mêliés made 'A trip to the Moon', a film similar was made. The thing I find really interesting is how much of a pioneer Mêliés was for film making. The stories he created where childish and full of fantasy. All the strange sets make them very interesting to look at and in The Impossible Voyage we see some very strange, unusual but somewhat pleasant imagery. The film is also slightly tinted in colour, so some of the colours are quite florescent. This film feels like something that was more targeted to a young audience and it is very fun to watch.
Full Review:
http://movierelatedblogs.blogspot.com/2011/06/impossible-voyage-1904.html
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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