A Voyage to the Moon

Last night was really quiet again. I watched an episode of The Wire (the last one for this week).

Thinking about the old Frankenstein movie that I watched yesterday, I was thinking about other silent movies that I've seen at the movies. I saw the 1926 version of Metropolis about thirteen years ago at a science-fiction movie festival with live musical accompaniment. I also saw the 1922 film Nosferatu at a horror movie festival with live piano accompaniment.

It was another very quiet and very dull day at work. This evening I watched a movie from 1902 called A Voyage to the Moon, directed by Georges Melies. It's often regarded as the first science-fiction film, and is probably one of the first real special effects movies. It's most famous scene is the one where the spaceship lands in the eye of the Man in the Moon. People often laugh at these really old movies today, but so many movies people watch today come from there. Also it is a movie that is still well-known and watched over a hundred years after it was made.

Frankenstein

Last night was pretty quiet. I was watching some comedy shows on TV and the latest episode of The Wire.

Today was another very quiet and very dull day at work. This evening I was watching the 1910 movie version of Frankenstein. It was the first movie version of the Frankenstein story and one of the earliest horror movies ever made. Despite only lasting around 12 minutes, it still manages to have all the essential elements of the story and still leave room for some hilarious over-acting. Of course, it was a silent movie, so they had to use these exaggerated gestures to get the meaning across. However, there are some really effective sequences, such as the monster creation sequence, and the final scene. It was still scarier than the Kenneth Branagh version, anyway.