Product Details

• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Erm Media
• DVD Release Date: October 27, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002N5KEO2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,671 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Audiophile Audition, John Sunier, November 7, 2009

There are many DVDs out there of Melies' incredible 1904 film full of special effects - which may or may not be the very first sci-fi film ever - but none of them give the viewer the option of matching the 12:09-long flick (and it really does flick) to a choice of four different original music soundtracks. The project is part of the many CDs of music by living composers which ERM has released. The main force behind this DVD+CD set is composer/conductor/pianist Robert Ian Winstin, whose Taliban Dances and Oedipus Requiem have been recently acclaimed. He is Music Director of the Masterworks of the New Era series of music by living composers.

As we now know, silent films were seldom silent - often accompanied by lavish orchestral scores or at least piano and violin or theater organ. Melies was a one-man show, pioneering the whole film industry in Paris and coming up with this 1904 film based on Jules Verne's Voyage to the Moon. You can bet there was musical accompaniment to its premiere. Unfortunately, poor Melies was screwed by Thomas Edison when he brought his new film to the U.S. Edison's spies had secretly obtained an early copy of the film in Europe and showed it thruout the US. prior to Melies' visit, so Edison made a fortune from the showings and Melies went bankrupt, having spent over $10,000 (1904 $) making his short epic. The costumes and special effects are amazing; my favorite are the chorus girls from the Follies Bergere in matching uniforms, lined up to push the spaceship into the giant cannon and to see it off. This may be the only DVD reissue of the Melies classic where the image is slightly stretched and cropped a bit to fill a 16:9 screen. It did look a bit sharper than previous DVD versions I've seen.

There is only one big symphonic score among these four choices. The Millennium Symphony can be anything from a single piano to a full orchestra, and in these cases the players usually number a few. Winstin's own score uses mainly piano and percussion with various prepared piano sounds. The one by Hurwitz and Spinosa features the two musicians on piano, B-3, accordion, synthesizers, and vocals, plus others on drums, percussion, doublebass and guitar. James Guyman's score is the orchestral one. This film music veteran even uses a wordless choir with the orchestra, giving the images a more epic stance. Don Myers reported that he felt the accordion was really perfect for the screen images, and I have to agree. He used thematic material in the score that came from an accordion concerto he had written at age 10. It's very interesting to experience the different feelings produced in the viewer by the four different scores when matched to exactly the same filmic images. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to listen to the music on the separate CD apart from the film, but if you do, it's here. (I decided to place this review in our DVD section since that's the main thrust of the release.)

Allmusic.com, November 2009

A Trip to the Moon is the most famous of the over 500 short films produced by cinema pioneer Georges Méliès betwen 1896 and 1912, and its signature image of a bullet-shaped rocket lodging itself in the eye of a smirking moon is one of the most recognizable images in cinema history. An accomplished magician, Méliès moved from simple recordings of his stage shows to dazzling fantasy epics which were among the first narrative films ever made. These "trick films" combined fantastic yarns, intricate painted sets, and elaborate costumes with such simple but effective special effects as slow motion, dissolves, and superimpositions. Like Méliès's other long films of the period, Trip to the Moon is composed of a series of tableaux, each featuring chaotic action and multiple camera tricks photographed with a stubbornly static camera, which work together to tell a simple story. It proved sensationally popular with audiences, though Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery rode a slightly more sophisticated narrative to greater success the following year. As one of the earliest examples of cinematic fantasy, A Trip to the Moon paved the way for such filmic flights of fancy as The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, as it proved that the seduction of the audience through special effects has roots deeper than the blockbusters of the Seventies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great idea!, November 2, 2009

By 

Domenica Finke (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Le Voyage Dans La Lune [CD+DVD] (DVD)

What a great idea! The concept of giving living composers a crack at historic film refreshes the excitement that must have been felt when this film was originally conceived. Bravo! It makes a fuller, richer experience for this important classic.

Although all the compositions are fun and are unique takes on the story line, I fully enjoyed Robert Ian Winston's evoking the sense of being in an old movie house; and especially the score by Don Myers, who highlights the brashness of these first explorers, the danger of the trip and the wonder of the universe. Each music section blends and builds the absurdity of the plot as if it was always intended to be the original voice of Verne's classic story and Melies' extraordinary film. Myers refreshes the sense of wonder, and his is the only uninterrupted full score, actually written in a concerto style. Now I can't imagine watching this movie without Myers' music.

The booklet promises more new/old works from these noted composers, Mr.Winstin and The Millennium Symphony. There's something to look forward to!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Great Idea Ruined by a Lousy Print of the Film, January 4, 2010

By 

Robert A. Klimowski "martinufan" (Des Moines, IA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Le Voyage Dans La Lune [CD+DVD] (DVD)

An excellent concept is ruined by the use of a poor (and incomplete) print of the film. Compare this over-contrasty and blurred image to the balanced gray-levels and sharpness of the same film (with extra scenes!) in the Flicker Alley Melies box set (Georges Melies, First Wizard of the Cinema). There is simply no comparison. And no matter how interesting the music, it cannot compensate for the duped, spliced, and scratched print that you are forced to squint through.
James Guymon's score is the stand-out. He has plainly taken pains to study the film and build his music around it. The Hurwitz/Spinosa score, by contrast, is simply too lightweight and frivolous. The liner notes say that some areas of this score are completely "ad-lib." I believe it. Improvisation, when done well, can be excellent, but these folks just needed to do their "homework" first (as the previously mentioned James Guymon plainly did). I quickly tired of the Don Myers score, as it's accordion-based timbres never varied - a little tone-color, please!
So, the only reason for purchasing this DVD/CD set is to hear Guymon's rendition of the soundtrack. See the film in the excellent Flicker Alley Melies box set. Don't settle for this version!

5.0 out of 5 stars A walk on the other side, June 17, 2010

By 

A. Downey "AllieKat" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Le Voyage Dans La Lune [CD+DVD] (DVD)

I got this DVD because my BF went to school with one of the composers; the music is very different from anything I have heard before... I liked it a lot thoughh but, how do you score it? :)
If you are at all adventurous in your musical taste this is a must see!