Number of user reviews: 19
User score: 7.7
A common observation about The Voyage Across the Impossible is that it is just like A Trip to the Moon, except the explorers go left, instead of right. Banal as it may be, I cannot quite disagree with this claim, maybe because this is Georges Melies' sixth entry in the Canon in seven years and I'm running out of things to say about him. At least, one can certainly argue that this is the first sequel in the Canon, even if only in spirit. Voyage aims, to a greater extent than any previous film we've looked at, to reproduce a winning formula, to replicate past success. It also follows the trends of later sequels in that it is longer, more complex, and more lavishly-budgeted than its predecessor. Where A Trip has just a spaceship, The Voyage has an automobile, a balloon, a train, and a submarine, with corresponding changes in scenery for each segment. Even moreso than in A Trip, the actual voyage in The Voyage is practically irrelevant: the film is an excuse to link together backdrops, to show off some cinematic parlor tricks. This is not a film in which characters matter; there is no dialogue, there are no intertitles, and none of the travelers are named. The film is in a constant rush to get to the next setpiece, never stopping to consider the people within in it, who are dragged around the film as if the plot itself was a force of nature driving their journey.
And perhaps this is why I find The Voyage Across the Impossible boring. It is the first dumb blockbuster in the history of the movies. Unlike those of A Trip to the Moon, the images of The Voyage do not stick with me, and I have difficulty recalling the general shape of the plot in my mind, despite having watched the film three times. Melies is the model for all the movie magicians after him who view films more as theme park rides than stories. Yet even this comparison may be too generous: a rollercoaster may still be thrilling on one's second, third, or fourth ride, but a movie rarely is, unless there are layers and nuances to its craftmanship. But nuance is a foreign concept to Melies, and I don't even mean that as a put-down; his style simply does not allow for anything more than the simple pleasures of surface spectacle. I will also clarify here that "style" does not refer to the "stylized" reality that Melies creates in both A Trip and The Voyage (the faces on the sun and moon, the willful breaks from the laws of physics, and so on), for "stylization" ultimately adds nothing to a film other than another permutation of image fetishism (hence fascism's obsession with aesthetic: novel styles discourage thought or analysis, directing the viewer's attention to exterior appearances only.) "Style" in this context simply refers to the boundaries of Melies' craft, the limits that he will not (or cannot) exceed. Melies hits those limits wherever a film would go beyond the visual stimulation of a magic show; hence the lack of any real characters or even coherent plots in his films. He is defiantly shallow, a celebrator of artifice and whimsy; you give him some of the precious time out of your life, and you get to see a few neat tricks. Whether or not those tricks are neat enough to offset the microportion of your existence required to view them will be up each viewer's tastes. I can only speak for myself when I say that Melies' schtick has gotten old and I'm eager to look at someone else's oeuvre.
Other connections: This was pretty much the high-water mark for Georges Melies' creative control, as he soon encountered diminishing returns afterward and eventually lost all of his money on a few expensive flops. Then, his studio was wrested away from him and (as recounted in a previous entry) Melies burned all of his work in frustration. Also, The Voyage features one of the first deleted scenes in film history, a "supplementary section" that gave the film a more complete ending, and had to be purchased separately from the rest. This segment went missing for 70 years after the film's initial run.
Other most-voted titles of 1904:
2. The Living Playing Cards (Georges Melies | 1,016 votes)
3. The Untamable Whiskers (Georges Melies | 772 votes)
4. The Cook in Trouble (Georges Melies | 595 votes)
5. Tchin-Chao, the Chinese Conjuror (Georges Melies | 573 votes)
6. The Wonderful Living Fan (Georges Melies | 396 votes)
7. An Interesting Story (James Williamson | 381 votes)
8. The Great Train Robbery (Siegmund Lubin | 273 votes) -- Not to be confused with the more famous 1903 Edwin S. Porter film of the same name.
9. Decapitation in Turkey (Georges Melies | 273 votes)
10. Dog Factory (Edwin S. Porter | 258 votes)
IMDB lists 1,824 titles for the year altogether.
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