'A Trip to the Moon (1902)' has been called a lot of things: the first narrative film, the first science-fiction film. It's certainly one of the earliest films I've seen with any substantial story, though William K.L. Dickson's (admittedly primitive) 'Rip Van Winkle (1896)' predates it by six years. But, yes, this does appear to be cinema's first foray into science-fiction, a playful loose adaptation of Jules Verne's novel "From the Earth to the Moon" (the director's follow-up film, the even better 'The Impossible Voyage (1904),' was also inspired by Verne). Méliès' films to date had largely been pithy "trick films," which served as training grounds for many of the optical tricks that he utilises here, particularly stop-motion and multiple exposures.
Editing-wise, Méliès doesn't do all that much. Each shot operates as a self-contained scene, usually photographed from a distance, as though watching a stage-play. However, his use of elaborate backdrops and optical effects is effective. It took me several viewings to appreciate the film's satirical approach, with its bumbling explorers and outrageous abuse of science. I'm very tempted to read sexual symbolism into the film, if only because of Méliès' 'The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907),' in which the Sun and Moon are seen to engage, bizarrely but quite unmistakeably, in a bout of homosexual intercourse. Certainly, there is something suggestive in a group of men entering a phallic vessel, being thrust into a circular orifice, and blasted (ejaculated?) out the other end.
Editing-wise, Méliès doesn't do all that much. Each shot operates as a self-contained scene, usually photographed from a distance, as though watching a stage-play. However, his use of elaborate backdrops and optical effects is effective. It took me several viewings to appreciate the film's satirical approach, with its bumbling explorers and outrageous abuse of science. I'm very tempted to read sexual symbolism into the film, if only because of Méliès' 'The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907),' in which the Sun and Moon are seen to engage, bizarrely but quite unmistakeably, in a bout of homosexual intercourse. Certainly, there is something suggestive in a group of men entering a phallic vessel, being thrust into a circular orifice, and blasted (ejaculated?) out the other end.