Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) is considered one of the first movie stars ever and made film history with his acting and his works. He is also one of the few artists who managed the transition from silent films to sound films.
Because of using archetypal imagery and symbols in his films, it is natural that the moon could also play a part somewhere. We found four references:
By analogy with earthquakes on Earth, there are so-called “moonquakes” on the Moon. By that, we are referring to tremors on the Moon. The astronauts of the five Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972 left seismographs on the Moon to measure these seismic waves. Afterwards, all data had been sent back to Earth until 1977 and analyzed.
The American-British space thriller »Gravity« of 2013, offers next to its extraordinary suspenseful action, breathtaking images of space that show apart from the Earth and the Sun also the Moon. The director of the movie is Alfonso Cuarón (who also directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). The movie is commercially very successful and has already brought in the multiple of its production cost, shortly after its release.
No, this is not about another sequel of the science fiction movie or whether Arnold Schwarzengger is planning a trip to the moon … It is more about an astronomical term, where »terminator« describes the day-night border of a celestial body. This is the visible border between the illuminated side and the dark side of the object, being the border between day and night on the celestial body. The word »terminator« derives from Latin »terminare« = conclude, restrict.
As reported back in September 2013, NASA sent the lunar probe LADEE (short for: Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) into space, to circle and to explore the Moon. Especially, the formation of ice at the lunar poles has been of great interest. The space probe also collected measurement data of dust particles and gases that are close to the Moon’s surface.
They have probably never met in person, Frank Sinatra (1915–1998), the American singer and entertainer and Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), the Russian pianist and composer, although, mathematically speaking, it might have been possible. However, almost two generations lay between both musicians and stylistically they are worlds apart. But there is a meeting point indeed, that even has to do with the full moon.
There are probably few painters who made use of the full moon in their paintings as often as Marc Chagall (1887–1985), the French artist of Russian-Jewish descent, who was regarded as »le poète« (the poet) amongst painters, due to his symbolic shapes and colors.
Chagall lived for almost a century and if one can classify his style at all, then it would have to be expressionism. He worked in Russia, France (primarily Paris) and in the US (primarily New York) and was on an inner and outer journey throughout his life.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) was a French writer, who was less famous for his own pieces [*], but better known through the writings about him by Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) from 1897. The piece was called just like himself “Cyrano de Bergerac” and premiered as a stage play in Paris in the same year.
Up until today, it has been staged and filmed many times. The movie that is surely most famous is the one with Gerard Depardieu in the leading role from 1990. All dialogues are versified, which lends everything a historicizing but also an intense, poetic effect.
It is getting quite hot now, as there is indeed a sexual pose, called “full moon”, at least in the German language. This name has not been given in every country. In English it is referred to “reverse cowgirl”. This makes one curious …
In this position, one partner lies on the back (usually the man) and the other partner (usually the woman) sits on top in squat position, but in reverse and turning the back and buttocks towards the person lying underneath.
“Moonwalk” is a dance technique which fakes a forward motion by moving legs and feet, while in reality you are moving backwards. This is how the illusion is created that the floor is pulling away in a gliding motion, underneath the feet of the dancer. No other name can be more closely connected to this move than the name of Michael Jackson (who was born on 29th August 1958 on a full moon). Even though he is not the founder, in this case, one can refer to him as the figurehead. The key moment was Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean” at the anniversary celebration “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” in 1983. From this moment on, the moonwalk’s triumph was not to be stopped and Michael Jackson had shaped his signature move.
Everyone knows that about once a month is full moon … but, strangely enough, a full moon is always on a different day each month and always at a different time. The reason is that the moon month is shorter on the average, than the calendar month. Without being to mathematical, one can say that a moon cycle lasts approx. 29.5 days. This is how the time of full moon spreads irregularly throughout the calender months and it happens (about every 2.5 years) that two full moon dates fall onto the same month, one at the beginning and one at the end of the month. This second full moon is called a “blue moon” today.