Extraordinary Voyage | Le voyage extraordinaire

FR | 2011 | 60 min
reż|dir Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange prod|pro Marianne Lère scen|wr Bromberg, Eric Lange zdj|ph Jean – Luis Sonzogni muz|mus Bruno Alexiu mon|ed Janice Jones ob|cast Tom Hanks, Michel Gondry, Costa-Gavras, Jean Pierre Junet Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, Nicolas Ricordel dys|dis MK2

In their documentary “Extraordinary voyage,” Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange follow the story of a colour copy of “A trip to the moon” which was discovered in 199 in the Spanish Fimoteca de Catalunya. Showing the process of restoring the badly damaged film material is also a pretext to take a closer look at George Méliès, a visionary and the great illusionist of film. Forgotten throughout the years, Méliès still remains a great individual of the beginnings of cinema. In “Extraordinary voyage,” Costa-Gavra, Michel Gondry, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, among others, talk about Méliès’ work. The significance of his works is underlined by this year’s Oscar-winner, director of “The artist” – Michel Hazanavivius. According to him, Méliès’ films are “naive, innocent, and beautiful,” and “imbued with poetry.”

Serge Bomberg (1961)
French director, producer, art director, television host. Graduated from the ESCP Europe (1983). Founder of Lobster Film (1985) and Steamboar Films (2006). Along with Ruxandra Medrea, he was awarded a César for best documentary film – for “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno.”

Eric Lange (1973)
French director, scriptwriter, producer. Directed, among other things, several episodes of  “Les premiers pas du cinéma,” a series on the history of cinema. A restaurant that he and Serge Bromberg ran in 2010 lead to the publication of restored films by George Méliès.

Trip to The Moon, A | Le voyage dans la lune

FR) | 1902 | 16 min
reż|dir George Méliès prod|pro Gaston Méliès scen|wr Georges Méliès zdj|ph Michaut, Lucien Tainguy muz|mus Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Nicolas Godin mon|ed Georges Méliès ob|cast Victor André,  Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Jeanne d’Alcy, Henri Delannoy, Depierre,  Farjaut, Kelm, Georges Méliès dys|dis MK2

One of the most characteristic shots in the history of cinema is probably the moment when a spaceship crashes into the moon’s surface, or rather: plunges into the satellite’s eye. Films by the ingenious George Méliès stirred audiences in the beginning of the 20th century and keep delighting them today. This can be observed through the unfading interest in the legacy of one of cinema’s founding fathers, visible recently in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” for example. Owing to the laborious, costly, but successful reconstruction, the classic film can be seen in the best possible quality. A soundtrack to the originally silent movie was composed by the acclaimed duo AIR. The restored film had its premiere during the Cannes Festival in 2011.

Awards
2011 National Society of Film Critics’ Best Film Restoration Award

George Méliès (1861-1938)
Film-maker, visionary and one of the founding fathers of cinema. Fascinated with the new medium since its beginning, he started demonstrating his own films in his theatre in 1896. The films created in his atelier were distributed with such success in his homeland as well as abroad, that in 1903 Méliès opened an office in New York. In the long run, however, his company Star Film was unable to compete with large film companies. In 1928, journalists found Méliès living in poverty and placed him in a nursing home. Méliès produced over 1,200 films.