Le Voyage dans la Lune

Synopsis

King V’lan is giving a splendid festival to celebrate the return of his son, Prince Caprice, accompanied by the young man’s tutor Microscope. V’lan wishes to abdicate in favour of his heir but Caprice declines this honour, which would force him to give up travelling – his sole passion. Instead, he asks to visit... the Moon. V’lan consults the astronomers about the possibility of undertaking such a journey. They all agree that such a thing is unrealisable. The prince commands Microscope to find a way to carry out the project, and the tutor forges a cannon capable of propelling a rocket containing the intrepid traveller. When the time comes to leave, V’lan decides to accompany his son and orders the unfortunate Microscope to join them.

The rocket hits the Moon and the three travellers emerge from it safe and sound. But the indigenous population is angry and wants to throw them into prison. Fortunately, the daughter of King Cosmos – the lovely Fantasia – obtains her father’s pardon for the condemned men. When Cosmos learns that V’lan is a fellow monarch, he takes him to his palace and introduces him to the strange ways of the Selenites. What surprises the travellers most is to learn that love does not exist on the Moon. Women are mere art objects, replacing the stocks and shares in which the inhabitants of the Earth speculate on their stock markets.

Prince Caprice despairs that he cannot make the beautiful Fantasia requite his love. His grief does not, however, rob him of his appetite; he is eating apples – all that is left of the provisions they brought in the rocket – in a state of melancholy when Fantasia appears. She discovers this unknown fruit and suddenly feels for Caprice the passion with which he alone was hitherto intoxicated. Fantasia’s ladies-in-waiting, following the example of their mistress, also take a bite of the forbidden fruit: their hearts are all aflutter. Cosmos too has tasted the apples, for Caprice, disguised as a travelling quack, has given him cider to drink. But, having now fallen in love with his wife Popotte, he realises that his royal consort only has eyes for Microscope, whom she pursues with her attentions.

Cosmos, bent on revenge, summons a court of law and sentences V’lan, Caprice and Microscope to spend five years without food in the crater of an extinct volcano. He accompanies the condemned men to their prison. Just as he is about to come back up from the crater, the rope holding the basket is untied and a letter falls at his feet: it is from Popotte, who wants her cruel husband to share the fate of her beloved. For her part, Fantasia has preceded the travellers into the crater in order to die with Caprice. Cosmos promises to pardon the earthlings their crimes if they manage to find a way out. Suddenly, there is a tremendous explosion and everyone is thrown out of the volcano. When they regain consciousness, they hail the appearance on the horizon of the luminous globe of the Earth, to which Microscope is determined to bring them back.