Georges Méliès’s A TRIP TO THE MOON is part of unusual double feature at FIAF

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (Sofia Coppola, 1999) and A TRIP TO THE MOON (Georges Méliès, 1902)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, April 12, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through April 26
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s CinéSalon series includes an unusual double feature that doesn’t seem to make sense as part of “EDM Anthems: French Touch on Film,” which began with Daft Punk Unchained and previously screened Mia Hansen-Løve’s Eden, a fictionalized journey into the start of the electronic dance movement scene. But as it turns out, the 2010 restoration of Georges Méliès’s 1902 classic, A Trip to the Moon (“Le Voyage dans la Lune”), one of the most influential films ever made, and Sofia Coppola’s 1999 adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s debut novel, The Virgin Suicides, have something key in common: Both feature soundtracks by French electronica duo Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, better known as Air. A Trip to the Moon is an early example of narrative storytelling and, specifically, science fiction, a fifteen-minute adventure that goes from an Astronomic Club meeting of scientists to the moon, pushing the boundaries of cinema. Méliès himself plays Professor Barbenfouillis, who leads a contingent of five men (entertainers Victor André, Delpierre, Farjaux, Kelm, and Brunnet) into space, guiding their self-built capsule directly, and famously, into the eye of the man in the moon. Once there, the men, sans space suits or oxygen tanks, do battle with the Selenites before attempting to return home. Inspired by the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Méliès creates a world that is a kind of mash-up of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, with fanciful characters, hallucinogenic scenes, and a robust color scheme; of course, those films came later, but the books were in print by 1900. Air’s score, which includes vocalizations, lends the proceedings a, dare we say, trippy atmosphere.

A family is torn apart by tragedy in Sofia Coppola’s THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

The Virgin Suicides, which traces the downfall of a suburban Michigan family in the 1970s, is chock-full of period songs, with well-known tunes by Heart, the Hollies, Carole King, Styx, Todd Rundgren, 10CC, the Bee Gees, and ELO all over the film. But it’s Air’s score that gives it added emotional depth, from tender piano lines that evoke Pink Floyd and late-era Beatles to rowdier, synth-and-drum-heavy moments to mournful dirges and hypnotic, spacey sojourns. In the film, nerdy math teacher Ronald Lisbon (James Woods) and his wife (Kathleen Turner) are raising five teenage girls, Therese (Leslie Hayman), Mary (A. J. Cook), Bonnie (Chelse Swain), Lux (Kirsten Dunst), and Cecilia (Hanna R. Hall). As the tale begins, Cecilia is rushed to the hospital after attempting suicide. “What are you doing here, honey? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets,” her doctor says, to which she responds, looking directly into the camera, “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.” On her next try, Cecilia succeeds in killing herself, leading Mrs. Lisbon to become stiflingly overprotective and domineering. But she starts losing control of her daughters when high school hunk Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett) falls hard for Lux. Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Bling Ring) shows a sure hand in her directorial debut, marvelously capturing small-town teen angst, even if things go a bit haywire in the latter stages. The film is narrated by Giovanni Ribisi and also stars Jonathan Tucker, Noah Shebib, Anthony DeSimone, Lee Kagan, and Robert Schwartzman as a group of boys who are rather obsessed with the sisters in different ways. There are also cameos by Scott Glenn as a priest, Danny DeVito as a psychiatrist, and Michael Paré as the adult Trip, and look for a pre-Star Wars Hayden Christensen as Jake Hill Conley. In an interview with Dazed in conjunction with the fifteen-year anniversary of The Virgin Suicides, Godin noted, “I really hated being a teenager. It was a pretty horrible time, and although I had good friends, I am so happy to be out of that time. . . . I definitely brought that to the film score, this idea of not being loved enough.” You can show your love for A Trip to the Moon and The Virgin Suicides at FIAF on April 12 at 4:00 & 7:30; the later screening will be introduced by DJ SuperJaimie.