George Méliès

film 49 of 70

A Moonlight Serenade

Film Review by Dean Duncan Jun 19, 2015

Tons of lovely lunar stuff here, especially when Pierrot is gathered up to join the woman who is sitting up there. Méliès is in metamorphic mode now, as the moon now turns into a blinking, patently filmed eye. It scares the laird so much that his hair turns white. The effect, the self-reflexive expanse of this film brings to mind the superb The Magic Lantern (q.v.), and makes me think again that this guy, along with so many of his individual films, is really ripe for rediscovery. Not just that, but a thorough and searching round of theoretical analyses.

The last lunar transformation, resolving into this mooning moon face, is better than the one in A Trip to the Moon. Which is really saying something!