'The Astronomer's Dream (1898)' depicts a wacky nightmare than an astronomer has while gazing up at the moon. It involves devilish creatures, heavenly women and grotesque celestial bodies. It's explicitly framed as a dream (primarily via the title), so the piece doesn't have to make a lot of sense. That's good, because it doesn't. It operates on the sort of dream logic that sees ordinary activities morph into battles against otherworldly beings, sees regular objects take on a life of their own and pits a hopelessly logical protagonist against a hopelessly illogical situation. Making ample use of early special effects (mostly those achieved with a well-timed cut), the flick wonderfully achieves its goal of presenting a waking dream to its audience. It's short, sweet and visually impressive. It's still really good considering it came out 100 years before I was even born. 7/10.
