Life Imitates Art

Still from Le Voyage Dans la Lune

I heard the news on Saturday about a European space probe that was launched at, and crashed into, the moon. Their aim (pardon the pun) was to stir up a cloud of dust and examine the images to see if the moon was really once a part of the Earth.

Hearing this reminded me of Georges Méliès' Le Voyage Dans la Lune ("A Trip to the Moon"), a French film made in 1902. In it, a group of astronomers decide to go to the moon by loading themselves into a special artillery shell and being shot directly at the moon. The shell lands in right in the middle of the Man in the Moon's eye.

Wendy had the image framed above when she was working on Puppets on Parade as inspiration for one of the puppets. Below is the footage of the actual impact. It's not nearly as impressive: