Georges Melies's Restored A Trip to the Moon

The visionary and ground-breaking films of Georges Melies have received richly-deserved and renewed attention, following the release of Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.  No original hand-colored copies of Melies’ masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune), from 1902, had been known to survive until a copy was miraculously found in Spain in l993. In 2010, one of the most complex and ambitious film restoration projects was launched, to bring the film back to its original glory, 110 years after its first release. Using the most advanced digital technologies now available, the restoration team reassembled and restored the fragments of 13,375 frames.  Part comedy, part science-fiction, but above all, proof of Melies’ genius as a pioneer of the moving image, the restored A Trip to the Moon is a must-see cinematic experience on the big screen.

As part of a special double-bill the New Jersey Film Festival will also screen The Extraordinary Voyage  a film that chronicles the journey of A Trip to the Moon from its creation in 1902, to the astonishing rediscovery of a color print in 1993, to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. This new documentary includes interviews with contemporary filmmakers, including Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Melies’s enduring significance to cinema. “The gorgeous restoration of [Melies's] masterpiece A Trip to the Moon was surely a cinematic highlight of the year, maybe the century” --A.O. Scott - The New York Times. 

Both of these films will be screened at the New Jersey Film Festival in September. Info on the screenings is below.

The Extraordinary Voyage - Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange
A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) Restored - Georges Melies
will be screened as part of the New Jersey Film Festival on Thursday-September 13-Ruth Adams #001, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ–6PM $10=General; $9=Students and Seniors; $8=Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC Friends Co-sponsored by the Rutgers University Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA Centers)!

A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) Restored - Georges Melies
will also be screened as part of the New Jersey Film Festival along with Barrymore on Friday-September 14-Voorhees Hall #105, Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ–6PM $10=General; $9=Students and Seniors; $8=Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC Friends

Get more info at www.nfjilmfest.com or call (848) 932-8482!