‘Tonight, Tonight’ Vs. ‘A Trip to the Moon’

Previously brought up in class was the Smashing Pumpkins take on the Georges Melies famous black and white film, “A Trip to the Moon.” Their video of “Tonight, Tonight” was highly successful, and was quite unique from the other music videos coming out in the ’90s. At the time, it felt all the more unique because I had no prier knowledge of Georges Melies. Whenever the video would come on, I’d think of it as “that really cool, early 1920′s feeling music video” and end it with that.

However, it’s all the more intriguing knowing the basis for it’s artistic style and direction. Like  ”A Trip to the Moon,” the Pumpkins video uses many of the same effects as the short film it borrows from. The original was black and white, flowing at a mere 16 frames per second and whatever color there was in the film was all hand painted by Georges Melies. This holds true with the Smashing Pumpkins video as well. Throughout, it has a refreshing feel to it. From being shot at 16 frames per second as well, to all the set feeling handcrafted and on a smaller budgit, if one didn’t know they weren’t the original artists of the film, it would come across as brilliant.

Despite having a different story line and a slightly more colorful look, the “Tonight, Tonight” video is a cool throwback to the original 1902 artistic style. Even the song itself has an older time period feel to it as well.

If anyone’s interested, here’s a link to both videos as well:

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