Melies / book devoted to his most famous film (& color restoration) in Silent Horror Forum

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Melies / book devoted to his most famous film (& color restoration)

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Shonokin		#41	[-]
Feb 8 12 1:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Dr Acula wrote: http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/12/31/air--moon-rock French ambient electronica band Air impart a cosmic touch to the newly restored color edition of George Méliès’ iconic 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). Technically innovative at the time, Méliès’ masterpiece pioneered the use of trompe l’oeil objects, papier-mâché props and double-exposure to tell the first science fiction tale in cinema. The story sees astronomer Professeur Barbenfouillis, played by Méliès,�fire himself and six colleagues to the moon, explore caverns beneath the surface and escape from the indigenous insectoid Selenites. The color reel, hand-painted by Méliès, was discovered in 1993 by the Spanish film archive La Filmoteca de Catalunya and took almost two decades to restore. Unveiled at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and due for release on DVD this coming February, the new print’s kaleidoscopic palette highlights the movie’s hallucinatory aspects—something Air wanted to match with their soundtrack. “We wanted to give a very surrealistic touch to the movie,” says the group’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel. “Music has to make you leave the Earth.” The Versailles-born musicians, who previously soundtracked Sofia Coppola’s directorial debut The Virgin Suicides, composed an entire album inspired by the film, eliciting vocal contributions from Au Revoir Simone and Victoria Legrand of Beach House. “When the people talk [in the film] we decided to use animal sounds,” explains bandmate Nicolas Godin. “We wanted to do the opposite of Walt Disney. He takes animals and makes them speak with human voices. We have farm noises and elephants.” Dear lord, that was awful. Not only does the style of "music" not even slightly fit, it seems to be a completely random, run-on stream of buzzing, whining noise which is not orchestrated to the scenes in the movie. Terrible. I'd have to tell Jean-Benoit that though they wish their music to make people leave the Earth, it'd definitely have me leaving the theatre. Background music should be there to emphasize what is happening on screen, not distracting from it. -Shonokin The Pulp Reader
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pulp novelties		#42	[-]
Feb 8 12 1:43 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't dislike the music in-and-of-itself, but it is a pretty poor match to the film. It would be better suited to Dario Argento's TRIP TO THE MOON.
pulp novelties		#43	[-]
Mar 26 12 4:30 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, got my Flicker Alley Blu-ray set today. The film restoration looks quite nice, but as was probably their contractual obligation, the color version appears only with the air soundtrack. There is a fine-grain B/W also included which offers 3 alternate score options, but alas there is no way to pair them with the color print, which also runs a tad longer than the B/W prints. Some may like the AIR audio, I will be seeking other options for when I show the tinted version of the film. Oh yeah, the tin box is cool and so is the book. I haven't watched the documentary.
Barbenfouillis		#44	[-]
Mar 26 12 10:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I was kind of disappointed with the doc since it didn't offer much new in the beginning. But the last part on the restoration is fascinating. And, do my eyes and ears deceive me at about the 5:30 mark? EDIT: Listened to the doc 1st and saved the restoration for desert. I usually don't get too fussed over the audio track but, YUK. Steve "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!" Last Edited By: Barbenfouillis Mar 27 12 6:53 PM. Edited 2 times.
pulp novelties		#45	[-]
Mar 27 12 12:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'll have to check out the 5:30 mark and let you know. Also, allow me to waffle, I still thing the score leaves something to be desired at a couple junctures, but I no longer hate it, I just wish there was something a little less "hipster" to accompany a 110-year-old film.
pulp novelties		#46	[-]
Mar 27 12 12:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Barbenfouillis wrote: And, do my eyes and ears deceive me at about the 5:30 mark? Steve I look at the documentary and TRIP, I must be missing something.
Barbenfouillis		#47	[-]
Mar 27 12 7:47 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	They claim it's the voice of Georges Melies. I am pretty sure that they interviewed him about then but I dunno if they ever recorded it. Might be. Might be a mistake or bad translation in the subtitles. Steve PS Pretty sure it was about 5:30 in the documentary; I'll have to re-check. "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!"
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pulp novelties		#48	[-]
Mar 27 12 10:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Barbenfouillis wrote: They claim it's the voice of Georges Melies. I am pretty sure that they interviewed him about then but I dunno if they ever recorded it. Might be. Might be a mistake or bad translation in the subtitles. Steve PS Pretty sure it was about 5:30 in the documentary; I'll have to re-check. Oh that I heard. I just was a little surprised, but accepting. I suppose they could have had an actor do it? Having an audio interview of Melies would seem like a pretty incredible extra in it's entirety, perhaps too incredible to have not previously surfaced?
Barbenfouillis		#49	[-]
Mar 27 12 6:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	pulp novelties wrote: I suppose they could have had an actor do it? Having an audio interview of Melies would seem like a pretty incredible extra in it's entirety, perhaps too incredible to have not previously surfaced? That's what's going thru my mind too. Meanwhile I've been slowly taking in the rest of the disc. I'd say they did as good as possible rounding out a DVD featuring a short film.* The b&w version with the "troupe of actors" reciting the narrative from some US 1903 showings tickled me fancy. Wonder where they dug that up from? (EDIT: according to the last page of the booklet, while they knew of the existence of such narratives, none are known to survive. Looks like they made one up from the summary.) Steve * Then again, I'm prejudiced what with my "Barbenfouillis" moniker and all that.. "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!" Last Edited By: Barbenfouillis Mar 27 12 7:04 PM. Edited 1 times.
cosmicjim		#50	[-]
Mar 28 12 12:27 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The New Jersey Digital Highway has some Melies catalog and supplement documents in PDF. Nice stuff, but the PDF format itself is only really necessary for the full 1905 catalog. PDF is superfluous for the brief supplements and just results in files that are large without necessity. A lot of other early film catalogs and announcements on the site, and while many don't have very good scans, it's worth a look.
Barbenfouillis		#51	[-]
Mar 28 12 6:43 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	cosmicjim wrote: The New Jersey Digital Highway has some Melies catalog and supplement documents in PDF. Nice stuff, but the PDF format itself is only really necessary for the full 1905 catalog. PDF is superfluous for the brief supplements and just results in files that are large without necessity. A lot of other early film catalogs and announcements on the site, and while many don't have very good scans, it's worth a look. Do you have a direct link or can you tell me what I might be doing wrong in the Search Engine? I enter "Melies" in the following link and don't get any hits: http://www.njdigitalhighw.../prev_feat_coll_ever.php Thanks, Steve "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!"
doctor kiss		#52	[-]
Mar 28 12 7:01 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Here's a direct link (33 items in all): http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/search/results.php?key=NJDH&q1=Me%CC%81lie%CC%80s%2C+Georges&q1field=mods%3Aname The trick is knowing that the accents on Méliès' name have been added in some odd, non-standard way at the site! There's a lot of other early silent stuff there, relating to Lubin, Edison, Pathé and other companies' releases (513 items in all): http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/search/results.php?key=NJDH&q1=Motion+pictures--Catalogs&q1field=mods%3Asubject But... as cosmicjim indicates, many of the scans are so substandard in quality that I'm left wondering why they bothered. Some look OK if viewed at 200% magnification, while others (including quite a lot of the Edisons in particular) are flat-out illegible. Last Edited By: doctor kiss Mar 28 12 7:07 AM. Edited 1 times.
Barbenfouillis		#53	[-]
Apr 1 12 12:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	pulp novelties wrote: Barbenfouillis wrote: They claim it's the voice of Georges Melies. I am pretty sure that they interviewed him about then but I dunno if they ever recorded it. Might be. Might be a mistake or bad translation in the subtitles. Steve PS Pretty sure it was about 5:30 in the documentary; I'll have to re-check. Oh that I heard. I just was a little surprised, but accepting. I suppose they could have had an actor do it? Having an audio interview of Melies would seem like a pretty incredible extra in it's entirety, perhaps too incredible to have not previously surfaced? According to David Shepard on Nitrateville, it's the real deal... That makes this DVD quite the treat to my mind. Steve "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!"
Barbenfouillis		#54	[-]
Apr 28 12 11:54 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Barbenfouillis wrote: Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination is a new book pretty much devoted to one film...A Trip to the Moon. Posts on Nitrateville make me think that it's going to be the cat's meow and there is an interesting DVD too. Thanks to a fellow CHFBer for pointing this out to me via a private message. Steve What with the recent hand-colored print now back in my l'il consciousness, I've been re-reading Matthew Solomon's book. Some great essays in there about all of Melies' possible influences. That includes many of the fairs of the day having "Trip to the Moon" exhibits. Here's one of the best and most typical examples: http://buffalopanamexpo.b...011/04/trip-to-moon.html Steve "This is the wireless detonator, men," he explained. "When I press this key it will complete a radio circuit in the real detonator tuned to this wave combination. As soon as I can get the boy Hank, I'll have him tow the old duck boat with the wireless bomb and leave it under the radio shack where that Evans chap has his laboratory and his confounded radioplane. Then blooey!" Last Edited By: Barbenfouillis Apr 28 12 12:03 PM. Edited 1 times.
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Melies / book devoted to his most famous film (& color restoration)