Aelita (film)

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Movie
German title Aelita - The flight to Mars
Original title Аэлита
Country of production USSR
original language Russian
Publishing year 1924
length 111 minutes
Rod
Director Yakov Protasanov
script Alexei Fajko
Fyodor Ozep
production Meshrabpom-Rus
music Vladimir Kruchinin
camera Emil Schünemann
Juri Scheljabuschski
occupation

Aelita - The flight to Mars (OT: Russian Аэлита , transcribed Aelita ), also Aelita because the "e" is spoken separately, is a Soviet silent film by Yakov Protasanow from 1924, which on the same novel Aelita by Alexei Tolstoy based . At the German premiere it was awarded the title Der Flug zum Mars .

The film is historically significant and had a groundbreaking influence on the development of the genre of science fiction in theater and film. On the one hand, its elaborate science fiction elements in a subplot line introduce a style that was unusually new at this time, which was taken up by many theatrical performances and which was soon combined with a typical idea of ​​futuristic societies. With his decoration in the style of German film expressionism , which was completely new for the Soviet conditions at the time , he also had a great influence on later (international) film productions.

On the other hand, this film is now also thematically the first film of its genre at all, which is a major theme of science fiction, especially since the motifs it contains have repeatedly been taken up and further developed for feature films and series over the years. The film was later strictly censored in the Soviet Union after the contemporary ideology changed. This was shown, among other things, in the film parody Межпланетная революция (Interplanetary Revolution - The Hyperboloid Hits the Screen) (a fragment of which is still available), an animated film made from a mixture of cartoon and silhouette film.

Even during the Cold War was Aelita not shown in the Soviet cinema. Today the film can be seen worldwide in DVD versions with subtitles in various languages, but the subject has not yet been taken up again.

content

The film is set towards the end of the Russian Revolutionary War from 1921, when conditions were chaotic and bitter poverty dominated the everyday picture. It contains some everyday recordings that were only designed in an insignificant dramaturgical manner and is therefore in parts also a contemporary document. In addition plotline reaching radio stations in Europe at the beginning of the film (1921) signals from space with unintelligible words "Anta Odeli Uta," which the military of different nations do not pay attention, but which will be examined in more detail by the Soviet radio employees. On the orders of engineer Loss one tries in vain to decipher the sentences. Loss suspects that they come from Mars ("That sounds crazy, but someone on Mars wonders about us."), But is laughed at by his colleagues. Loss falls for this idea and indulges in pronounced daydreams , and he also begins to prepare construction documents for a spaceship.

The main storyline , which makes up the greater part of the film and describes life at that time, develops from the Kursk train station in Moscow (at the time also a hospital), where thousands of people who are on the run or deportation have gathered are bitterly poor. Loss' wife Natascha also works there. In this storyline the conditions are clearly described, the recordings were made in 1924 in the original locations with many authentic extras . Following the novel by Tolstoy, excerpts from the life stories of his contemporaries are described. Retrospectives of individual people, technically cut by superimposed scene transitions , tell of better times before the war. Reduced rations, different people living together in an apartment or house, interpersonal problems, cohesion in great need, but also the theft of food and embezzlement for reasons of enrichment are discussed. A Herr Erlich ( borrowed from German without h) steals food. Loss is also involved in a jealous drama with Natascha and Erlich, entrusts his design documents to his colleague Spiridonow, leaves Natascha and works as an engineer to help build up the country.

While the main storyline is being realistically developed, Loss is busy in parallel in the subplot with how he could get to Mars and longs to get there. In daydreams he imagines Mars with Queen Aelita and the king Tuskub in a futuristic environment. Language and gestures are different there, kissing is completely unknown. The “energy guardian” Gor , who lives there, Loss dreams, has developed a telescope with which he can observe life on other planets, but keeps it under lock and key on Tuskub's orders. When the exotic beauty ensnares Gor so that he can allow her a look through the telescope, he suggests a secret nightly meeting on the robot-guarded tower of the radio energy station. After a maid Aelitas distracts the robots, Aelita can see life on the other planet, Earth. In addition to natural landscapes, she also discovered the military (war) and love (peace), whereupon she finally begins to kiss Gor, as people do. They are observed by Tuskub. In the telescope, Aelita can see the words "Anta Odeli Uta", which Loss painted on a dirty window on earth, lost in thought, and she thinks of him longingly, as Loss imagines it in his daydreams. As Loss fantasized, Aelita often went to the tower of the radio energy station. When Aelita is hindered on one of her trips to the tower of Tuskub, she appears as queen before the council of elders of the Martian Society and vehemently demands the right of access. However, the council of elders denied her access and rules otherwise very rigidly, freezing workers in cold stores or banishing them underground like slaves. Aelita gains access to the tower herself and gets caught up in a jealous drama with Tuskub.

These scenes were created in a theater with many elaborate stage sets. In this storyline, in addition to four main characters, uniform groups of actors appear. The ruling caste is silver, the workers uniformly dressed in dark and faceless, the robots and soldiers are designed with futuristic applications. The slave drivers are also recognizable as workers.

Meanwhile, Spiridonov Loss writes a letter in the main storyline explaining his emigration from Russia, but has previously walled the design documents of the spaceship into a chimney so that they will be preserved after his departure. Loss goes there and gets the papers. There is a jealousy scene in which Natascha is shot. Loss fantasizes about having killed Natascha and going on with his life under the identity of the missing Spiridonov and having built the spaceship that will eventually be launched. In addition to him and the cosmonaut Gusew, an enterprising, down-to-earth revolutionary soldier, who was supposed to travel with him , a local fool and would-be detective was accidentally taken on the trip to Mars , as he said . In the film, this symbolizes a semi-silky and unreliable bourgeois character.

Loss' fantasies suddenly turn out to be true. On Mars, the council of elders and Aelita observe the arrival of the strangers in their approaching spaceship through the telescope . Tuskub orders the aliens to be eliminated because they are unwelcome revolutionaries from Earth who could disrupt the Martian slave-holding society. Aelita prevents this by having her maid kill the chief trustee, who is the only one who knows the calculated landing area. She lets the visitors land unimpeded, bring them to her and kisses Loss passionately as people do. Aelita and Loss meet and love each other.

While trying to betray Loss, the fool he traveled with is arrested due to language difficulties with the Martians and taken to the cold stores together with the maid. From a liberation action, a flaming revolution emerges on Mars, with the slaves rising. The cosmonaut Gusew incites the slaves to fight back. He calls for resistance in a rousing speech. The film then recreates the storming of the Winter Palace in a futuristic setting, the slaves finally storm the palace and kill the council of elders and the ruler Tuskub in a wild brawl. Queen Aelita joins the riot first and leads the slaves to success. But she orders the laying down of arms after the victory. When finally the Mars army is on Aelita's side, they proclaim themselves sole ruler and have the slaves driven back to the prisons. She wants to get rid of them.

Because of this betrayal by Aelita, Loss turns on his lover and throws her down the palace stairs, where she dies. While trying to fathom the meaning of the words "Anta Odeli Uta", Loss suddenly wakes up in the main storyline and realizes that the trip to Mars was just a daydream. The words are the proper name of a trade mark that he saw advertised before the dream (is shown in the film beforehand). Natascha is still alive, Erlich is arrested and Loss burns the construction documents because he has had enough of it and never wants to daydream again.

production

Production notes

The film was produced by the cooperative production company Mezrabpom-Rus. The costumes of the actors were designed by avant-garde painter and artist Alexandra Exter and Isaak Rabinovich. The script was written in direct collaboration with the author of the template Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy , a distant relative of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy .

background

The main storyline of the film takes place in contemporary everyday life and has many ideological elements, which initially led to widespread use in the Soviet Union and international cinemas. Space travel was already in 1902 in the film The Journey to the Moon by and with Georges Méliès theme in a film. However, Aelita is the first full-length science fiction feature film. It came about at a time when Lenin had introduced a new economic policy and thus a temporary and partial return to capitalism in the Soviet Union in order to enable the country to recover from the devastation of war and revolution. Intellectuals who had left Russia at the time of the revolution came back. So did Jakow Protasanow, one of the most famous directors in Tsarist Russia. He had been in exile in France and Germany and made a few films there. He received support for the filming of Aelita from the new Soviet authorities .

Alexandra Peregonez, who played Aelita's servant in the film, was tortured and shot by the Nazis in April 1944 . She belonged to an underground group in Simferopol that was planning to get rid of Hitler .

In a new version of the film with German subtitles, the music comes from Alexander Scriabin , Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Glasunow .

reception

publication

The film premiered in the Soviet Union on September 25, 1924. Moscow citizens were informed about Pravda from September 19, 1924 . In addition, advertising leaflets were dropped from airplanes and further marketing campaigns were launched by Mezrabpom-Rus in support of Aelita , including an extravagant premiere gala . The premiere is said to have been inundated by moviegoers who asked for movie tickets.

In France (Paris) the film was released on October 17, 1925, in the USA on March 25, 1929 in New York. He was first seen on television in Finland on March 8, 1975. In Japan, it was released on May 15, 1987. In the Czech Republic, the film was released on November 15, 2002 on the occasion of the CinEd @ ys Film Week. In France a DVD was released in October 2005, in Finland another release took place on January 20, 2008 in Helsinki and on June 12, 2008 at the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä . On August 19, 2017, the film was one of the entries at the Melbourne International Film Festival. He could also be seen in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Portugal. The international title is Aelita: Queen of Mars , partly with the subtitle Revolt of the Robots .

In an abbreviated 80-minute version, the film was premiered on German television on July 25, 1969 on WDR III . It was also presented on February 10, 2012 at the Berlin International Film Festival .

The film was released in the original Russian version with subtitles in various language versions, including German, on DVD by Ruscico.

criticism

The film was coldly received by Russian critics who said it was not artistic, but it was popular with the Russian people, with the result that many of the girls born that year were called Aelita , despite the aristocratic connotation . The initially very popular film later fell out of favor with the new Soviet government and was difficult to find until after the Cold War.

AllOfCinema's Evgeny Nefedov said the film's producer was obviously very interested in the social transformation of a huge country. Nikolai Batalow is convincing in the figure of a soldier, a conscious man of the Red Army. Igor Ilyinsky as a debutant is a brilliant comedian. […] The film offers a fantastic party, it is no coincidence that it caused a sensation at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels moderne in Paris in 1925. The ambiguous outcome of the revolution, which was shown by Soviet cameramen, seems to be more convincing than that of Fritz Lang in his film Metropolis .

Paul Fléchère explained for the French side DVDClassik that the Russian film Aelita is almost forgotten today and that its rediscovery through a DVD edition is an amazing experience. The historical context in which the film was made is very original and gives the film itself a lot of interest as it spreads the news of its own time. It was also said that Aelita would be a good film if its originality also suffered from being an excellent documentary about life in Moscow during this strange period of the NEP. Thanks to this, however, it remains an essential film in the history of Russian cinema. Although the film was shunned by critics and apparatchiks of the regime after its release, it was still popular. The budget for Aelita was the largest budget ever for the production of a film in Russia.

Jay Seaver of EFilmCritic.com said it was a testament to the director's craftsmanship that someone who saw Aelita could have enjoyed the film without realizing that it was a pretty darn propaganda film. Anyway, every time you watch an old film or read an old book, you have to look at the context of time. Unfortunately, the propaganda in the film is accompanied by a horrible cliché that is annoying, no matter what the ideology of the film (or filmmaker, or sponsor) may have been. The film works for almost the entire duration, both the fantastic and the down-to-earth segments are well done, even if they now seem naive, they are credible products of their time. The characters are also well drawn and easy to assign.

Jennie Kermode of Eye for Film wrote that Queen of Mars was a nifty mixture of science fiction and pro-communist filmmaking, although for its time it was neither highly developed in narrative nor in visual technology, nor was it a straightforward piece of propaganda. Rather, there are warnings about how easily revolutions can be corrupted from above or from below. The film shows a Russian society that is far from perfect, with people taking advantage of each other and officials cheating on the system, and it warns that the only way to maintain a healthy society is through vigilance and hard work. The film itself is an example of the work he advocates.

James Newman from imagesjournal focused on the director's return to Russia and his plan to film the novel Aelita . That is the film he is known for in the West; a socialist science fiction spectacle with great backdrops that incorporate constructivist and cubist motifs. Aelita was the first big budget film to be shot in Russia. A year and a half in the making, Aelita was conceived as ideologically correct mass entertainment that should be able to compete with Hollywood films at the box office. [...] The drama on earth is not without interest, but rather ordinary. Without the scenes on Mars, we probably wouldn't care about the movie today, Newman says, because those scenes are what carry the movie's strongest political message.

L'Oeil sur L'Ecran believed that this Soviet silent film, made in 1924, was truly amazing. Amazing, because four years before Fritz Lang's Metropolis , Aelita created a universe of science fiction, a really innovative vision of a Martian culture with costumes and decorations inspired by Cubism . Aelita is also subtle and complex because of its message, astonishing, because the film also contains an anti-communist pamphlet that shows us a Russia full of misery. In the end, the film is really catchy.

Allessandro Aniballi from Quinlan rivista di critica cinematografica spoke of a bourgeois melodrama, social realism, a detective story, a proletarian comedy and schizophrenic science fiction film that was made in the early years of Soviet cinema. Aelita is a creature of the imagination, at least as far as fiction is concerned. Not only does the low-cut dress of Queen Princess Leila's bikini seem to anticipate, but the mechanical Mars soldiers seem to be the forerunners of the Stars Wars stormtroopers, not to mention the dictatorial oppression that reigns on Mars from Aelita, very similar to that Regime that the galactic empire imposed on its inhabitants in the Lucas saga.

The critic and journalist Kim Newman said that in his own way, Aelita has everything: social realism, fantasy, allegory, science fiction, simmering sex, a revolution, incredibly improbable plot developments, nice tricks, special effects, ornate decor, but also too many messages and Morals for a movie. Aelita is also a satirical comedy and a historical document.

"A jealous drama that gradually develops into a comedy and gains particular charm through the expressionist science fiction backdrops."

- Lexicon of international film

“What I particularly like about the mixture of married drama, contemporary comedy and future film is the science fiction aspect, which lets the hero, the inventor Loss, land on Mars and the enslaved Mars workers take power. The technically quite lively strip is worth seeing for this reason alone. "

- Protestant film observer

“… Jakow Protasanov's film is a mixture of jealous drama, comedy and science fiction that has not been successful everywhere. Such types as Gusev, the soldier, and Ehrlich, the bourgeois speculator, or Krasnov, the policeman who was unable to attend are well drawn. The scenery on Mars is also interesting and worth seeing, and it is no coincidence that it is reminiscent of the expressionist ' Caligari ' landscape by Robert Wiene from 1919. "

- Protestant film observer,

Ideological meaning

In addition to the astonishing dramaturgical and film technical achievement of this very early production (1924), the ideological significance of the strip was discussed in several aspects. The events on Mars are seen then as now as a representation of the so-called “ exported revolution ”, which was carried from one Soviet republic to another in 1920 , but also later played a significant role in the Cold War . The motive of transferring the popular uprising to a completely different, but unjust (slave-holding) society was felt to be trend-setting under the conditions in which the film was made.

The betrayal of Aelita and the punishment by her lover (killing by falling), who in spite of all affection seizes the motive of Gusev (liberation at any price), symbolize the demands of the Russian Revolution that the oppressed should lead themselves because of the aristocracy nothing good was to be expected. The scene design does not allow any reinterpretation in these passages and was never recut in this passage.

The later censorship of the film in the Soviet Union goes back to Aelita's help in the Martian Revolution, which she only does to get rid of the dictator Tuskub, whose place she wants to take. It demonstrates the Leninist idea of ​​what could go wrong in a revolution if one confided in the wrong leaders. However, blind trust in leaders was later again an important domestic political factor in the Stalinist and post-Stalinist Soviet Union.

Loss also sees Aelita appear several times in his daydream as his wife Natascha, who, however, is a sincere revolutionary in the main storyline. Aelita, on the other hand, stands in the Martian Revolution for the opposite of what it means for Loss in the private romantic relationship. This ambiguous symbolism was also no longer desired in later times.

Importance of the film

The film is rated as a unique document of the time of the Soviet revolution and is also considered to be very significant from a film-historical point of view. He influenced later futuristic feature films, including the US series Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers from the 30s and Metropolis by Fritz Lang from 1927. Controversial and unconfirmed allusions to the film are also discussed about later episodes in series productions. In Aelita some rare recordings to see how the early parade on Red Square when he was still unpaved grassland and straw covered pavement.

The interplanetary revolution - parody of Aelita

Shortly after Aelita, a parody of the film appeared in 1924, namely the cartoon Межпланетная революция (Meschplanetnaja Revoljuzija, the interplanetary revolution) by Nikolai Khodatajew , Senon Komissarenko and Yuri Merkulow . Originally parts of the film should be made available to Aelita , but this did not materialize. However, some scenes were used for this cartoon, which is therefore considered the first Soviet science fiction cartoon and is also classified under the Soviet propaganda films. This cartoon is about 8 minutes long and shows the export of the revolution from Earth to Mars. It is a mixture of cartoon and silhouette film. In more recent Russian double DVD editions of Aelita the film will be published as bonus material.

See also

Publications

literature

  • Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983 , Munich (Heyne) 1983, p. 21. ISBN 3-453-01901-6
  • Matthias Schwartz: Aelita in: Dekoder (February 2, 2017).

Web links

Commons : Aelita  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Евгений Харитонов: ГИПЕРБОЛОИД СТРЕЛЯЕТ С ЭКРАНА (Фантастика А. Н. Толстого на экране) - Yevgeny Kharitonov,
    The hyperboloid hits the canvas , The Science Fiction AN Tolstoy on the screen , the interplanetary Revolution of 1924
    S. S. fandom.ru (Russian). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ Ingrid Pfeiffer, Max Hollein (ed.): Sturm-Frauen: Artists of the Avant-garde in Berlin 1910-1932 . Cologne 2015.
  3. ↑ a b Aelita (1924) sS acinemahistory.com (English)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Andrew J. Horton: "Aelita" by Jakow Protasanow sS ce-review.org January 10, 2000 (English).
    Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c d Paul Fléchère: Aelita sS dvdclassik.com, November 27, 2009 (French). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ a b c d Aelita: Queen of Mars sS scifist.wordpress.com (English, including full film)
  7. ↑ Lisa K. Broad: Aelita: Queen of Mars sS sensesofcinema.com, April 2010 (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ a b Aelita in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  9. ↑ Aelita Fig. DVD case
  10. ↑ Nigel Honeybone: Film Review: Aelita Queen of Mars (1924) see horrornews.net, April 30, 2013 (English).
    Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  11. ↑ Evgeny Nefedov: Aelita (1924 ) see allofcinema.com, February 4, 2013 (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  12. ↑ Jay Seaver: Aelita: The Queen of Mars sS efilmcritic.com (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  13. ↑ Aelita: Queen of Mars see p. eyeforfilm.co.uk, February 27, 2011 (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  14. ↑ James Newman: Aelita The Queen of Mars sS imagesjournal.com (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  15. ^ Aelita (1924) see films.blog.lemonde.fr, February 10, 2005 (French). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  16. ↑ Allessandro Aniballi: Aelita sS quinlan.it., April 10, 2017 (Italian). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  17. ↑ Kim Newman: Film review - Aelita sS johnnyalucard.com, May 19, 2017 (English). Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  18. ↑ Aelita , Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 352/1969
  19. ^ Aelita , quoted in Hahn / Jansen, p. 21.
  20. ↑ a b Aelita, Queen of Mars sS mikegrost.com (English)