Aelita

Having seen so many early movies pushing the communist agenda, I have tired a bit. To be fair, it was certainly creative of the filmmaker to use the science fiction genre and space travel to make a point. The characters represent either the old ways or the new. There is a comfort in being the ruling class and prospering on the backs of the disenfranchised. The Martians are dealing with the same thing. They seem to have devices to watch the earth and keep what is going on a secret. Until love forces things out in the open. The images are interesting curiosities of the time. I had never heard of this film and when I saw the title I thought it was one of those schlock films of the fifties. It is interesting, though slow moving. I was amazed when the wife got shot but, of course, we find out later that things aren't quite as they appear. See it just to get an idea of the type of film being made.

Certainly one of the more interesting and unique silent movies that you will see, "Aelita" is well worth watching despite its flaws. It's no masterpiece, but it offers an intriguing and often creative mix of science fiction, melodrama, and history. It also has an interesting story that holds your attention and moves at a pretty good pace.

Don't be automatically put off from seeing this film by the fact that everyone mentions the dose of silly Soviet propaganda that comes with the rest of it. It's definitely there, but the political elements are not terribly obtrusive or heavy-handed, although there are a couple of times when they are unintentionally humorous. There are many other themes that are just as prominent, or more so - such as relationships and jealousy, fantasy and reality, real-life concerns versus idealistic projects.

The dual settings of Moscow and Mars are used rather well, setting off the differences and similarities between the two societies and relating them to the concerns of the characters. There is a nice contrast between the settings and props in Moscow, which are drab but effective, stressing the pressing concern of everyday matters, and the weird, distinctive Martian sets and costumes. The latter are creative and interesting to look at, and if they are sometimes a bit over-the-top, they are no more so than most cinematic conceptions of other planets. The film's historical setting is also quite interesting in itself. It is set a few years before the movie's release, at a time when Russia was just emerging from the chaos of revolution and civil war. The atmosphere of rebuilding and uncertainty forms an important part of both the plot and the themes of the movie, and it also provides a historical look at an often forgotten era. Most of the cast and characters (at least the ones in Moscow) are believable enough that you want to find out what happens to them amidst all this.

You can certainly find plenty of better silent movies or better sci-fi movies than this, but you would find many more that are far worse, and not nearly so distinctive. For the price of putting up with a handful of political blurbs, you get to see an interesting story with some substance and plenty of unusual and creative details.

Martian society mirrors the one that the Bolshevik revolution was supposed to replace. Aelita is the nominal Queen of Mars, but it is really ruled by a council of elders, who enslave the Martian workers underground (as in Metropolis). A Russian engineer builds a space craft, flies to Mars and inspires a revolution with the help of a Soviet soldier.

Interesting and famous as early science fiction. The Martian Sets and Costumes are in the best Russian Constructivist style of the time.

Aelita is a science fiction film that features the first space travel by earthlings: Destination Mars. I recommend it highly for film history buffs and aficionados of the science fiction genre that are also interested in fashion and design.

It is hard to believe that impoverished and ravaged Russia still in the midst of the horrible Revolution that was to destroy the country economically for decades and that certainly tried its best to pulverize most of its traditional culture, could produce something so visually advanced as this film. A lot of the footage will remind you of Rodchenko photographs, or the Russian posters of the time, which were works of art done by the avant-guard artists in an explosion of creativity before Stalin's arrival sent them all underground, to exile or the Gulag.

Los, an engineer of talent and determination, thinks that the radio signal beamed all over the earth is a definite message from Mars. He frantically begins to work on a space craft that will ultimately take him to Mars, while ruining his personal life in the process(not much change there in career challenging relationships since then and now).

Meanwhile Mars' Queen, Aelita, (Yuliya Solntseva) has discovered that some of her scientists have created a telescope device that can watch the detailed life on planet Earth. She sneaks a peak through the telescope device and of course, concentrates on the first appealing sign of earthy interest, engineer Los, who has a Slavic-Icon look come to think of it, looks a lot like Vladimir Putin. She immediately falls in love with him and finds it hard to concentrate during her Martian day while constantly thinking about that man on earth....

In Mars they are all perfectly dressed in elaborate costumes that include a helmet- and-mask device for the slaves and delicate transparent plastic layers, headdresses and arm decorations for the upper class, in a very chic-futuristic look which must have influenced the bold designs of Paco Rabanne in metal and plastics a full forty years later. These outfits are quite extraordinary for being the first in this genre and are much more detailed and visually interesting than the ones in Metropolis, where only the robot is really fashioned in futuristic style.

Aelita looks gorgeous, beautifully dressed and wears a striking headdress that is most becoming, though a little cumbersome when she begs him to "unite our lips, like they do on earth" for the first red-hot kiss on Mars. She looks striking trailing her appliquéd gown in the gorgeous Constructivist set, that is surely a Modernist's dream of decor. Alexandra Exter, one of the women artists in the Russian avant guard is credited with the designs, she had considerable experience in theater sets, and it shows here. Los impulsively sides with Queen Aelita's struggle to overthrow the regime of exploitation, finding nothing wrong in the 'revolution' being conducted by an imperious Queen in her regalia, proving once again that love is blind, even in interplanetary relationships.

This was however a difficult film to watch, and that is why I gave the seven stars rating, because not unlike other great Russian films, the length and timing are just so much more extended that we are used to in the West. You may find yourself fast-forwarding the slower scenes in Soviet Russia that look particularly dim by comparison to Mars.

There is also an episode, almost surreal in the way it interjects into the Russian reality plot, where a worker breaks his chains and fashions the hammer and sickle symbol. The man's naked torso with the chains is the first we see of this allegorical vision, he looks like one of the medieval heroes from "Alexander Nevsky", but shirtless, showing off the primal muscle splendor of Slavic manhood, an unexpected delight that may well be the first unintentional homo erotic intervention in official Communist propaganda.

The Old U.S.S.R. was quite a bizarre country; aristocratic balls were illegal and so was private property. This Herr Graf, for example, had to suffer the indignity of sharing the hundreds of empty rooms at the Schloss with homeless people. What's more, the caviar was rationed out-and even the commoners got their share.

So the fact that a Bolshevist engineer has the dream to travel to Mars after having received a mysterious and coded message from outer space was not at all strange to this Herr Graf. It was not even a surprise that this dream comes true.

"Aelita" (1924) ,directed by Herr Yakov Protazanov, was the U.S.S.R.'s first science-fiction film and was a notable success and became known even beyond the frontiers of Russia. Even after all these years, the oeuvre maintains its singularity, artistic qualities and its weirdness.

Obviously the film surprises the audience, especially with the Mars futurist part. This is skilfully intertwined with a parallel story of a Bolshevist couple whose relationship is endangered by jealousy and suspicion. Even the queen of Mars, Aelita (Frau Yuliya Solntseva) will get involved as she falls desperately in love with the Terrestrial Bolshevist, our hero, the engineer Losi ( Herr Nikolai Tsereteli ). The engineer dreams of travelings to Mars partly as a way of dealing with his earthly problems but, more importantly, to export the October revolution beyond the small confines of earth. Thus, the red planet must become truly red.

The part of the film set in Mars astonishes even a German count with its particular costumes and sets, designed by Frau Alexandra Exter and Herr Isaac Rabinovich ( this Herr Von must add that Herr Protazanov's cinematographic background was influenced by European early avant-garde; he worked in Germany and France before the Bolshevists asked him to return to Russia) . This gives the film a suitably bizarre and fascinating atmosphere that is most appropriate for such an unusual story.

It must be said that the film isn't all absurdity, extravagance and propaganda delirium. As this German count said before, the film combines science-fiction with a down to earth story that reflects the daily hardships of the Moscow citizens trying to make a living at the beginning of the 20's. There is also some humor about people feeling nostalgic for the old regime and who are not quite accepting of the new order. The character of Kratsov (Herr Igor Illynksy), an amateur investigator, adds a bit of humor and brightness. Overall, the film is a successful combination of realism, comedy and science fiction; surely, one doesn't expect all this from those rude Bolsheviks.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must return to the aristocratic earthly world.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com