The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon

In this film, Méliès blends a fairy tale with a moral lesson, warning against the folly of probing too far into a chaotic, unknowable cosmos. At a medieval academy, an aged astronomer instructs a group of youths, each clutching a telescope, on the fine craft of observing an approaching eclipse. As the mechanical clock chimes noon, the students scramble to the windows, aiming their lenses skyward in eager anticipation.