Underplayed Gems

A Moonlight Serenade (1904)

A Moonlight Serenade poster
Original title
Au clair de la lune ou Pierrot malheureux
Directed by
Georges Méliès
Genre
fantasy film, comedy film, silent film
Country
France
Runtime
3 min
Rating
5.3 of 10 from 15 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A miser is tormented by a clownish Pierrot under moonlight. The Moon itself appears as a smiling face and as a goddess.

whimsicalplayfuldreamlikelightheartedtheatricalnostalgicinventivecomedic

What happens

Au clair de la Lune ou Pierrot malheureux, sold in the United States as A Moonlight Serenade, or the Miser Punished and in Britain as Pierrot and the Moon, is a 1903 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 538–539 in its catalogues. Méliès plays the miser in his film, one of several of his in which the Moon plays a large part. As in his The Astronomer's Dream (1898), A Trip to the Moon (1902), and The Dream of an Opium Fiend (1908), the Moon appears in two personifications: the clownlike face of the Man in the Moon, and the classical Moon goddess Phoebe, in that order. The character of Pierrot had previously appeared in Méliès's Dislocation Extraordinary (1901), where he was played by André Deed. The Pierrot in A Moonlight Serenade has the same costume and appearance as Deed's version, though the actor is unidentified. The film's special effects were created with stage machinery (including horizontally rolling scenery), an extreme closeup, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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