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Author
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Topic: A Trip To Mars
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FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-08-2005 11:34 AM
  
Here at the Science Center I have received the following query:Do you know where I might find a copy of Thomas Edison's 1910 four minute film "A Trip to Mars"?
Does anyone know if a commercially available version is out there? Thanks, FF |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 03-10-2005 12:45 AM
That wouldn't be easy !
http://mars-literature.skynetblogs.be/
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eilisk
Member Posts: 100
From: London
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 03-10-2005 06:31 AM
Hi FFrenchIf my memory serves me right the Edison film A Trip to Mars (dates vary between 1910 and 1913) is actually taken from (pirated!) the 1902 Melies film "Voyage dans la Lune". As far as I know it's not available. If it were it would probably be on the Edison DVD set sold by Kino DVD. Assuming this info is correct, then I'd point your enquirer at the Melies DVD instead, that's available from Amazon. Hope this helps, apologies in advance for any mistakes! All the best
Eilis |
Mark Zimmer
Member Posts: 289
From:
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted 03-10-2005 10:21 AM
I just reviewed the colossal Edison: The Invention of the Movies set from Kino on www.digitallyobsessed.com and regret to report Trip to Mars is not on that set. Neither is the 1910 Frankenstein, but those are the only significant omissions from that studio I saw.
http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=7041 This description indicates that it's not a pirate edition of the Melies picture (though Lubin did circulate a pirate version of Trip to the Moon under the name A Trip to Mars, leading to this confusion): Trip to Mars (1910) - this four-minute, black and white film produced by Thomas Edison was the first "movie" about Mars. A professor discovers that when he mixes two magical powders he has the power to reverse gravity. Some of the powder falls on him, and he is lifted up, flying through the sky until he finally falls down on the surface of Mars. He escapes some gnarly-limbed trees only to fall over a ridge and land on the lip of a giant Martian. The giant exhales and blows the professor into the air, then catches him, again and again, until the professor is propelled back to Earth. After crash landing back in his laboratory, the professor tries to destroy the powder only to wind up combining them again. The final shot shows the professor sitting on the floor of his chaotically spinning laboratory.
I don't believe that it has ever been released on video, other than short clips, but the wise folk at alt.movies.silent say that the George Eastman House has a print so if you're really desperate to see it you might contact them. At one point, the Museum of Modern Art was selling a copy of the GEH print, but I don't know if it's still available from them. They might be your best shot. www.moma.org
[This message has been edited by Mark Zimmer (edited March 10, 2005).] |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-10-2005 10:52 AM
Thank you so much, everyone, for those very informative replies, which I will forward to the person who asked.Thanks, FF |
Mark Zimmer
Member Posts: 289
From:
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted 03-10-2005 01:02 PM
FF,Here's contact info for the film collection at MOMA and their rental/sales of prints: Circulating Film and Video Library
(212) 708-9530; fax (212) 708-9531
The library includes more than 1,200 16mm prints covering the history of film from the 1890s to the present, as well as art films from the American Federation of the Arts and 35mm films from the Library of Congress. For information on the rental or sale of these films, see the price list, available free from the library. The library also incorporates an important collection of works by leading video artists, which are available for rental or sale in all formats. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-10-2005 01:57 PM
Thank you, Mark! | |
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