No original hand-colored copies of A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune - 1902), by Georges Méliès, had been known to survive until one was miraculously found in Spain in the mid-1990s, but in a fragmentary conditi... more »on thought too fragile to handle for either viewing or restoration. In 2010, three experts in worldwide film restoration - Lobster Films, and two non-profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - launched one of the most complex and ambitious film restoration projects ever to bring an original, colored version of Méliès masterpiece back 110 years after its first release. Using the most advanced digital technologies now available, the team reassembled and restored the fragments of the 13,375 frames. The two foundations, which carried out specifically the music part of this project, decided to approach AIR s Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, to compose an original modern soundtrack to accompany this cinematic milestone. Flicker Alley is pleased present this brand new restoration which also features The Extraordinary Voyage, a fascinating new documentary, directed by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange. The Extraordinary Voyage chronicles the journey of A Trip to the Moon from the fantastical Méliès production in 1902, to the astonishing rediscovery of a nitrate print in color in 1993, to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. The documentary includes interviews with contemporary filmmakers, including Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Méliès enduring significance to cinema. BONUS FEATURES: This publication also contains A Trip to the Moon in a beautifully restored black and white edition from original 35 mm elements with two separate audio tracks of music: An orchestral score by Robert Israel with the original English narration written by Méliès; and a second track produced by Russell Merritt consisting of a troupe of actors voicing the various characters as performed in the U.S. in 1903, with piano music by Frederick Hodges. There is also an interview with the group AIR discusing their new soundtrack, and two lunar-related shorts by Méliès - The Eclipse (1904) and The Astronomer's Dream (1898).« less
