La femme sur la lune

As Martin Sheen said in the fine documentary "Space," this movie deals seriously with almost every aspect of a flight to the moon. It makes some dreadful errors that, even in 1929, could and should have been avoided (an atmosphere on the moon, for example). But, it nevertheless treats the subject and the viewer with respect. When I saw this movie at a New York revival house, a live pianist provided the silent film's accompaniment. I encourage you to see it this way, as that somehow made it even easier to put myself in the place of an early 20'th century filmgoer, and see this fine movie for what it was. The story is light, but the beckoning mystery of outer space is captured in a way that will make you feel you know something more than you used to about the people who made, and first saw, these images. And, when you do, remember that real space flight was 30 _years_ away. (Later, you might ponder that the first lunar landing is now _more_ than 30 years ago, but do that after you enjoy this sweet look at, as Fred Pohl put it in another, related, context, "the way the future was.")

One extra bit of advice: Keep your ears open at the moment of launch. All of the effects in this movie are, naturally, simple and gray-haired. Nevertheless, when the rocket actually took off, my audience gave an audible reaction because, I think, Lang decided to emphasize an aspect of what a rocket is, and what it can do, that virtually all later film-makers have decided to ignore. They should see this movie, and learn a little something.

"Frau im mond" is undoubtedly one of the first and most important Sci-Fi movies ever made. Directed by Austrian director Fritz Lang best known for his masterpieces "M" and "Metropolis", it's a story of a half-mad greedy scientist obsessed with the idea of getting gold from the moon and a moon expedition that follows, there is also a love story that goes along. The look of the film is quite impressive, considered that it was made in 1929. Hitler later banned it, because the spaceship featured there was nearly identical to V-2s that were constructed in secrecy by the Third Reich at the time. An early Sci-Fi classic, a must see for any serious Sci-Fi fan. 8/10

One of the coolest things for any silent film buff is to discover a film that they hadn't heard of or known too much about. That's the case with Fritz Lang's restored "Woman in the Moon", in the 2004 KINO DVD release, in which the print quality is excellent and a new piano/synthesizer score has been added. As has been cited by many others here, the pacing of much of the picture is slow and the acting is occasionally melodramatic, but as was occurring with most movies in the latter days of the silents, the acting techniques were moving form the broad stage performances of early film to more controlled and realistic portrayals and most of the actors were of the latter group. In addition to the surprisingly realistic portrayal of many aspects of what would become space flight, it is interesting that the space (science fiction) aspect is not the focus of the movie. The movie deals primarily with six characters and the tensions caused by greed, love, scientific curiosity and boyish hero worship. The fact that they are making a trip to the moon to verify a theory that gold might be mined there is just the vehicle of the story. And the story itself is pretty decent, especially if you have the patience to let the movie tell it. And even though I am a fairly jaded film buff, I found myself genuinely startled and surprised at least twice by plot turns.

I love it when that happens.

Be patient. Its 169 minutes, but I think it is worth it.

This was Fritz Lang's last silent film. It is a science fiction adventure in which a scientist, Professor Georg Manfeldt, had theorized that there were large supplies of gold on the moon. He was ridiculed by his peers and disgraced because of this. However, a wealthy industrialist believes Manfeldt's theory and has been building a rocket to travel to the moon. when a group of wealthy men who control the world's gold supply feel threatened by the possibility the theory may be correct, they threaten to destroy the rocket unless one of their agents, Turner, is allowed to go on the expedition too. Apparently Lang's film got so much right about space travel that the Germans seized the models used in the film as state secrets when they started their own rocket-building program. This film runs 169 minutes and is quite slow in places. It has some very interesting and thrilling scenes, but it is probably one of the weaker of Lang's films that I have seen.

I saw the original premiere presentation director's cut of this movie in January of 2003, with excellent musical accompaniment by Dennis James at the Paramount theater. Perfect, restored print, a movie that I have always wanted to see (since it was mentioned in Carlos Clarens "Horror Movies" first published in 1967). HOWEVER... The tendency toward "original, premiere presntation" director's cut reached new heights of lunacy (pun intended) with this movie. It ran more than three hours and 40 minutes! According to it's IMDB entry the original version that ran in the US was 95 minutes with longer versions (running time up to 2 and a half hours) running in Europe. At times I felt as if I had been placed in hypersleep in prep for a deep space expedition of my own! The film certainly lived up to advance billing, yet certain things, like the 45-minute opening dinner scene, were obviously way longer than they needed to be. One doesn't need to be a genius to know that after the premiere, Fritz Lang probably cut the dinner scene to about three minutes, removed whole sections, and generally tightened up an otherwise improbable story. For example, the moon is portrayed as a rather pleasant (if poorly stocked with resources for survival) beach resort. Everyone runs around in sweaters and jodhpurs, and true love seems destined to survive the wait for a return rescue rocket. Other stuff was great: the launch pad, countdown and the experience of the G forces on blastoff were, well the archetypal events for all the space operas to follow. A good movie, but probably seen to much better effect on video or in the shorter release version (if either ever turns up).