The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (originally L'éclipse du soleil en pleine lune) is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 made in 1907 by director Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès

Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...

.

Plot

A professor of astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 (Georges Méliès) gives a lecture instructing on an impending solar eclipse

Solar eclipse

As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

. The class rushes to an observation tower to witness the event, which features an anthropomorphic Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

 and Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 coming together. The "effeminate" Moon and "devilishly masculine" Sun lick their lips in anticipation as the eclipse arrives, culminating in a "homosexual" encounter between the two celestial bodies. Various heavenly bodies, including planets and moons, hang in the night sky; a meteor shower

Meteor shower

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller...

 is depicted using the ghostly figures of girls. The professor of astronomy, shocked by all he has witnessed, topples from the observation tower.

Themes

The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon has been remarked upon for its overt sexual symbolism. The Sun and the Moon, both apparently male, are presented as having an erotic encounter, an early depiction of homosexuality in cinema. Christine Cornea posits that the film's primary theme, namely the clash of scientific logic with sexual desire, was also evident in Méliès' earlier films A Trip to the Moon and The Impossible Voyage

The Impossible Voyage

The Impossible Voyage is a 1904 silent film by pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. The film's runtime is about 24 minutes , and was probably inspired by Melies' successful earlier film Le Voyage dans la Lune...

, and would become a prominent in many subsequent science-fiction films.