This astonishing Expo ’58 Grand Prix winner was steampunk long before the term was coined. Drawing on Facing the Flag (1896) and other Jules Verne novels, it ingeniously adopts the line-engraving aesthetic of Édouard Riou and Léon Benett’s illustrations in original editions of Verne’s novels and anticipates the Cold War paranoia and antic derring-do of the imminent James Bond films.

CaSFFA is delighted to be presenting a digital restoration of An Invention for Destruction in partnership with the Karel Zeman Museum and the Melbourne Cinémathèque, preceded by The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (dir. Anthony Lucas, 2005, 26 mins). This Oscar-nominated silhouette animation declares Melbourne-based Lucas to be a Vernian fellow traveller. To be introduced by the filmmaker!