Question (spoiler)
Was the president dead after the fall on ocean? I can't see him after the ship drops on the water.
Thanks in advance.
good question.
The original narration that Melies wrote for the film says that the president needed to stay behind on the moon so that he could grab onto a rope attached to the projectile and pull it down. But in the film you can see that he's still dangling to the rope as the ship falls into the ocean, and while you don't see him when the projectile's underwater, you see at the last shot (or, at least the last shot in most versions, as an extended ending has been recovered) sitting on top of the projectile trying to whack his umbrella at what looks like a selenite.
So, even thought the president was supposed to be left on the moon, in the film he's still seen holding onto the projectile. Melies may have originally intended to have the president come back to earth, but later changed his narration used to accompany the film. My best guess that the reason that you don't see the president underwater is that it would have been too hard to film a man hanging onto a model spaceship in a fishtank in the 1900's.
Visit The Georges Melies Database
http://www.gmdatabase.tk
Well, if you would like to known about the president, here is a little tidbit. In 1996, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan used the idea of "A Trip to the Moon" as a basis for the hit ballad 'Tonight, Tonight'. In this video, he subsitutes a couple for the president, and they survive. The video is actually really nice to watch. Billy Corgan didn't 'rip-off' Melies. He merely was creating something that came from the influence of Melies.
shareActually, the president makes it into the ship. It is a Celonite that is holding onto the ship when it lands on earth (and he survives).
In the scene that is missing from the black and white prints (but not from the hand colored version), the Celonite is brough back to the parade with the scientists led by none other than the president!
-J. Theakston
The Silent Photoplayer
http://www.thephotoplayer.com/
hmmm....sounds cool.
Visit The Georges Melies Database
http://www.gmdatabase.tk