Between the Earth and the Moon. Georges Méliès and the antropomorphisation of celestial bodies

This study is an enriched and revised version adapted to English language of an investigation focused on a movement found in Voyage dans la lune (Georges Méliès, 1902). Namely, this movement has often been interpreted as a point-of-view shot, or at least one towards the Moon, which would therefore simulate the gaze of the characters in the shell as they approach the celestial body, or the gaze of the viewers as they move towards the Moon with the camera. It seems that in this ancient scene from Méliès’s most famous film there is something very modern, which triggers in us, the viewers, an interpretation that yields to the temptation to see something more, something both appealing and familiar. In this study, my aim is to show not only that Méliès did not use the point-of-view shot here at all, but also that this movement is something very complex and challenging, representing, among other things—in fact, primarily?—a move by the Moon, which fits into an anthropomorphic concept of celestial bodies and their depiction. It embodies, i.e., a sort of visual trope much in vogue at the time, in which astronomy and magic mingled and merged. In fact, in Méliès’s work, this movement takes on the typical features of his eminently magical “féerique” imagination, and extends a specific theatrical practice that Jacques Malthête aptly summarised with the phrase: “Moving set, fixed camera”.