The First Sci-Fi Movie

Audio & video activity

From “The Engines of Our Ingenuity” by Haleh Ardebili, University of Houston's College of Engineering

Length:  3.36 min.

Follow the link to get the AUDIO

Part 1 – 00 to 01.40

Listen to the first part of the audio and answer the questions below with a number.

1)In which decade did the Lumière brothers, Thomas Edison and Georges Méliès make their first short films?

2)In which year did Georges Méliès produce the first science fiction film?

3)How many years before the first unmanned landing on the moon was the film?

4) How many years before the first human touched the Lunar soil was made this first sci-fi film?

5)How many minutes long is this silent film?

6)How many cannons did the characters use to shoot a capsule into space?

Part 2  - 01.41 to 03.49

Listen to part 2 and complete the blanks with the words missing.

Georges Méliès was born on December 8th, 1861 in Paris. He had a strong artistic (1)............................ from an early age as he enjoyed sketching people and  (2)............................ and made cardboard (3)............................. After his education, he purchased a theatre in Paris and began writing and directing illusion (4)............................ He eventually entered the field of filmmaking.

In his film A Trip to the Moon, we get to see the space (5)............................ point of view. The

moon has a person's (6)............................ and it magnifies, as the space capsule gets closer. When it lands, we see the iconic (7)............................ of the bullet-shaped capsule stuck in the moon's (8)............................. We see the planets and stars in the (9)............................with their faces and identities, watching over the Earthling (10)............................. A celestial connection can be felt. We also see the image of the (11)............................ from the moon's horizon — eerily similar to another iconic image, the actual photo taken by (12)............................ many years later.

Méliès' trip to the moon is a story of humanity's long-time (13)............................ of space exploration. It displays elements of dream and (14)............................, with the suggestion of the (15)............................ that would make it happen. We can feel the magic and excitement of (16)............................. Perhaps the same feeling that we had when Armstrong walked on the moon or when the first rover landed on Mars.

We search for something (17)............................, surprising and powerful that can transform our (18)............................ forever. For the first time, Georges Méliès conveyed this through a motion picture.

Watch the original “A Trip to the Moon” with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold & Laurence Rosenthal here

Answers here!