A Trip To The Moon (1902)
Film is unusual among other art forms, in that its origins can be firmly established. Consider music, for example: no one can say what the melody to be performed was; likewise no one will ever know what the first noteworthy play to be performed live was. However, because film has existed only in the relatively recent past, and also because at some point all projected motion pictures have left behind their original camera negative, we can fairly easily create a full appreciation of the history of cinema. Georges Méliès' A Trip To The Moon (or La Voyage dans la lune in his native French) cannot, however, claim to be the first ever film, with that particular honour going to a 1888 feature, Roundhay Garden Scen e. At just two seconds long, it's not a classic, and for the next decade film would follow this example, being viewed as something of a novelty. Early films created by entrepreneurs such as the Lumiere brothers and Mitchell & Kenyon simply document everyday goings ...