Love by the Light of the Moon
About Love by the Light of the Moon
A moon with a painted face hangs over a park fence. A couple lean on the railing, look up, and embrace, and the moon's smile widens. They sit on a bench under a tree, the moon's view is blocked, and the face turns to a frown. In the last shot the moon has left the sky and perches at the woman's shoulder while the man fans her with his hat.
Cast & crew
More about Love by the Light of the Moon
Edwin S. Porter directed and photographed it for the Edison Manufacturing Company, which also distributed it. The moon's changing expressions are projected slides, not a second actor in the sky.
Themes
Background
Edison was still selling single-shot and short trick subjects in 1901. This one mixes a staged couple with lantern-slide animation.
Look
Edwin S. Porter filmed the couple against a park set and changed the moon by swapping projected slides of its face.
Technique
The moon smiles, frowns, and then appears beside the woman, the face changes coming from slides rather than a stop-motion puppet.
Notes
- The gag is the man in the moon, a year before Georges Méliès used a moon with a face in A Trip to the Moon (1902).
Scenes
- The moon frowns when the tree hides the couple on the bench.
- The moon drops out of the sky and sits at the woman's shoulder.
