A Message from Mars
No rating: lost film New Zealand’s first science fiction film is also the first ever film involving a Martian and an alien visitation to Earth. The 1903 movie was based […]
The Electric Hotel
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (8/10) Stop-motion animation with live actors has probably never been done as well as in Segundo de Chomon’s 1908 film The Electric Hotel. But this tale of a tourist […]
An Excursion to the Moon
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (6/10) In 1908 Spanish master filmmaker Segundo de Chomon directed a carbon copy of Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon. The result is professional, but uninspired. An Excursion […]
A Little Jules Verne
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (4/10) Gaston Velle’s 1907 film is a fairly entertaining underwater fantasy short, made hastily to cash in on Georges Méliès epic Under the Seas. Velle directs the imitation professionally, […]
Under the Seas
NO RATING; FILM INCOMPLETE Georges Méliès third science fiction epic (1907) is the first film based on Jules Verne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, even if it is rather […]
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
In search of a lost epic – whatever happened to Wallace McCutcheon’s ambitious first ever adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? The American 1905 answer to Georges […]
The ‘?’ Motorist
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (6/10) Walter R. Booth’s short film is a subversive and funny trick film about a couple of mad motorists that speed through the British streets, toppling police officers, riding […]
A Voyage Around a Star
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (4/10) An astronomer travels to woo the lady in stars by enclosing himself in a soap bubble in this 1906 short film by Gaston Velle. A Voyage Around a […]
The Moon Lover
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (7/10) A drunken romantic reaches for the moon in this warmly whimsical 1905 pseudo-sci-fi film by French trick filmer Gaston Velle. Clearly inspired by Georges Méliès, but with a […]
The Twentieth Century Tramp; or, Happy Hooligan and His Airship
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (3/10) The first American science fiction film was made in 1902 is shows the comic book character Happy Hooligan flying a balloon-bicycle over New York. A crude and technically […]
Gugusse and the Automaton
No rating, film lost. The world’s first film featuring a robot was a short one-reeler made by Georges Méliès in 1897. It is considered a lost film, and there probably […]
An Over-Incubated Baby
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (5/10) Britain’s first sci-fi film features a marvelous incubator. The short comedy clip was directed by Walter R. Booth, early cinema’s most prolific science fiction director and the artistic […]
The Flying Machine
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (7/10) Movie pioneer Ferdinand Zecca rides his steampunk bike over Paris in this short, but beautifully filmed trick film from 1901, marking France’s first science fiction movie. The Flying […]
The Mechanical Butcher
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (5/10) The first science fiction film in history was made by movie pioneer Louis Lumière in 1895, and depicts a futuristic machine turning a live pork into sausages and […]
The Astronomer’s Dream
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (7/10) Georges Méliès’ French short film was an important step in the development of the science fiction movie, even if it should probably be categorised as a fairy-tale. The […]
