Review of An Impossible Voyage

This early silent comedy-fantasy directed by Georges Méliès finds explorers (with names such as 'Rattlebrain' and 'Humbug') from the 'Institute of Incoherent Geography' mounting a grand expedition to explore the heavens and the deeps. After some mishaps, they successfully launch their balloon-lofted train off the alpine peak of the Jungfrau and into space, and ultimately into the sun itself (through that luminary's gaping mouth). Finding themselves at first overheated, and then frozen solid, the intrepid adventures return to Earth in their submarine and, after further mishaps, they are greeted as conquering heroes by their colleagues in the I.C.G. The film has a similar look to Méliès' seminal sci-fi film 'Voyage to the Moon' (1902) but lacks some of the charm and novelty of the older film. The imagery is silly but imaginative, and there are some very nice forced perspective background paintings (such as the train at the base of the Jungfrau). Many of the on-line versions are pretty choppy but I recently watch a reasonably good copy of the film at the Planetarium Star Theatre in the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, where it was presented with a new musical score by Owen Connell. Like all of Méliès work (and that of his contemporaries) , 'The Impossible Voyage' is more interesting than entertaining but is definitely worth the 20 minute investment by anyone interested in early cinema or the history of science fiction/fantasy films.