Customer Reviews

Aelita - Queen of Mars

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a work of totally visionary science fiction from an utterly vanished revolutionary Soviet Constructivist world. Which is weirder: royal life on Mars, or the fact that this film somehow got produced and distributed?

The sets and costumes are utterly mindboggling. This is my favorite work of science fiction cinema.

Bruce Sterling

Surprisingly watchable, for a silent film, and very well preserved. The Constructivist sets and costumes are amazing, a revolutionary art style before the later supression of expression and innovation in the Soviet Union (this film was later banned by Stalinist critics). Even the images of life on Earth, in the early days of that nation, are quite interesting.

After leaving the hall of cinema, I asked to myself how could this movie to surmount the ideological prejudices and brutal censure, if presumably didn't count with a kind overlook by part of adverse enemies of the regime. Because the whole contain of the underneath message was terribly mordacious.

An engineer decides to design a spaceship to try to find in Mars the woman of his dreams. Until now everything s works; but when he arrives to the red planet he finds a Proletarian upraising. This film not only inspired the genial mind of Fritz Lang but since its release has been an portentous document in the history of cinema.

This smart collection of elements: danger, humor and love were the primordial factors that could stand the inquisitive scrutiny of the Big Russian Brother; the iron fist ruler, and certainly the most bloody tyrant in the XX Century.

Aelita, Queen of Mars is certainly a gem of a movie. Made in 1924, it is a look at how Communist philosophy plays out in speculative fiction during the silent era. Purportedly, it was made on a fantastic budget, and the sets on Mars show it. The costuming for the Martian aristocrats concerns styles that were non-existent at the time, and seem to have arrived out of the 50's American Sci-Fi films. The Martian sets were indeed, outlandish and worth getting the DVD just to see.
The story is slightly weak, attempting to cover too much ground and too many genres for the amount of time presented. However, it does not detract from the important historic value of the picture and the simple enjoyment of watching the tale unfold.
The film displays the humorous exploits of the Bourgeoise Zie, and the stark poverty the Proletariat suffered in 1924 Russia.
In a way, this film could be an equal criticism of both. It takes an inordinately long time for the main character to reach Mars, although Mars is shown throughout the film, following Aelita, queen of Mars as she goes about.
The DVD has no special features worthy of note. The average scene selection and nothing else, but the restoration work is excellent, keeping true to even the few parts of the film that were intended to be poor quality. It is truly a film worthy of being presented on DVD.

I've read the book by Alexey Tolstoy, but I have not seen the movie until today. You'd think that in the 20's they tried to be close to the original, but not in this case - the movie is quiet a bit different from the book. Warning: spoilers ahead! Where in the book most of the action happens on Mars, in the film our hero doesn't get to the red planet until into some time the second hour of the movie. In the book Aielita dies after taking poison, Los' tastes something bitter on her lips, but it's too late. In the movie Los' kills Aelita, and then realizes that the whole shebang was a dream.

It's a good movie non-the less. The actors' play is wonderful, and many parts are funny.

The DVD doesn't have any features - just an index with shortcuts to different parts of the movie.

This silent film leaves a number of different impressions. The first, of course, is happy surprise that this film has survived in such good condition - compared to many other silents, it maintains high image quality throughout. Another impression comes from the remarkable art deco styling of the Mars sets and costumes. I'm no expert on older films, but this offers the most fantastical look of any I've seen to date. Yet another impression arises from the Soviet underpinning of the film, including swipes at self-serving authorities and the workers' bold revolution (complete with hammer and sickle).

The plot had some loose moments, but this remains a wonderful look back as well as an entertaining movie in its own right.

-- wiredweird

After TRIP TO THE MOON (1902), only HIMMELSKIBET (1918) and FRAU IM MOND (1928) are the only titles, along with AELITA (1924) in the silent science fiction section of my video library.

Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva) is a Frida Kahlo-like queen from Mars with unibrow and spectacular costumes! I am not sure she had 4 breasts, but one of the outfits did actually have 4 cups. Maybe we'll never know if martians actually exist or if they practice monarchy...
According to what I see, martian women dress in elaborate and complicated gear, not friendly to use in daily life (designer Aleksandra Ekster) and the same go to buildings and other landscapes. I can not picture 3 or 4 women together inside an elevator with those headdresses, they could end up injured!

I am sure this futuristic movie influenced other like METROPOLIS, FLASH GORDON, and who knows, maybe even TRON's costumes... I liked the segments that took place on Mars over all, and not so much the ones on earth... with the situation in Russia and all that.

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.

It is hard to believe that impoverished and ravaged Russia still in the midst of that horrible Revolution that was to destroy the country econnomically for decades and that certainly tried its best to pulverize most of its traditional culture, could produce something so advanced as this film, but here it is, a definite proof that in many ways, the avant-garde is to triumph where least expected. It also shows that artistic creation is almost always subversive by creating the new against all odds and trascending political or ideological barriers that may not at all have been the intention of the propaganda ministers.
The film is muddled with a supporting plot that describes how a scientist on earth, Los (Nikolai Tsereteli) receives a signal from the planet Mars and builds a spaceship to go there and investigate. He is helped along by a series of badly dressed, intrusive characters that make the story hard to follow.It is interesting to see the contrast from two worlds. The hardships of a rapidly changing Russia during 1924, compared to the Martian monarchy that is surveying the earth from the Red Planet. The radio signal has been sent all over the world, and while most disregard this as just a jumbled static noise, Los, an engineer of talent and determination, thinks that it 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 (not much change there in career challenging relationships since then and now). Mars' Queen, Aelita, (Yuliya Solntseva) has discovered that some of her scientists have created a telescope 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 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. When he arrives to meet her on Mars, he discovers a world not unlike the one that they were trying to get rid of in Russia at that time: The priveleges of a monarchy and the class divisions of a feudal system based on slaves and masters, here all perfectly dressed in elaborate costumes that include a special all-inclusive helmet-mask device for the slaves and delicate transparent plastic layers and arm decorations for the upper classfor a very chic-futuristic look which surely 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 the direct ancestors of Sci-Fi fashions. Los must now fight not only for Communist Russia, but for the liberation of the oppressed in the Red Planet, an altruistic mandate that Aelita plans to manipulate for her benefit while at the same time seducing him.

Aelita is gorgeous, beautifully dressed and wears a striking proto-atomic headdress that is most becoming, though a little cumbersome when she begs him to "unite our lips, like they do on earth". She looks striking trailing her 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 acvant garde is credited with the designs, and I think she may also have had a hand in the costumes, which was the chief reason I wanted to see this film. Los sides with Queen Aelita's struggle to overthrow the regime of exploitation, finding nothing wrong in the 'revolution' being conducted by a Queen in her regalia, proving once again that love is blind, even in interplanetary relationships.

This was a harsh film to watch, and that is why I gave the three 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. A little over two hours, it was too tempting for me not to fast forward the action, specially during the drab scenes of Russian reconstruction which are interesting only to building engineers, and possibly third rate Republican politicians, and are here only part of propaganda. There is a scene though that I thought was priceless: There is a secret "pre-revolutionary -styled-conspiratorial" ball, at which all the guests arrive wearing the drab clothes of the Russian proletariat only to shake it all off and shine in their jewels and tuxedos dancing the foxtrot and the tango like the Tsar was still in St. Petesburg. One wonders how such a scene could have escaped censorship seven full years after the Revolution, for there is NO doubt these people look a heck of a lot better in the 'capitalist' garb, so I for one would have gotten their propaganda message backwards. 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 all by himself, like a demigod. The man's naked torso with the chains is the first we see of this allegorical concoction, he looks like one of the medieval heroes that are in full-life size in bronze outside of St. Basil's cathedral in the Kremlin, but shirtless, showing off the brutal splendor of Slavic manhood, a great and unexpected delight that may well be the first unintentional homoerotic intervention in official Communist propaganda, a detail which should make it a must-see for social historians and all those interested in the study of the manipulation of desire and eroticism under totalitarian regimes.

MAIN PLOT POINTS--
The story opens at a radio monitoring station which receives a mysterious message from outer space. In a cubist-like Martian palace, Queen Aelita watches with fascination the alien activities of Earth. She sees the struggling masses and becomes fixated upon a scientist named Los who dreams of building an interplanetary spacecraft.

The Russian portion of this movie has a few subplots that weave loosely around the main issue of Los's suspicions of his wife Natasha's infidelities with an unctuous boarder. His seething anger compels Los to shoot his spouse. He then dons a disguise and builds the rocket (the interior of which looks like a boiler room-- we never do see the outside). Los lifts off for Mars along with a bored ex-cavalryman volunteer (Gusev) and a stowaway wannabe detective (Kravtsov), the movie's bumbling comic relief.

The three Earthlings land safely, and for Los and Aelita, it's love at first sight. While they dally, the amateur sleuth petitions for the seizure of Los, who is now Aelita's consort. There's a coup against Los and Aelita, who in an effort to save herself, exhorts the many Martian slaves to revolt. With chaos rampant, the military swears fealty to the queen, and she betrays the rebels by ordering the army to run them off.

In a deus ex machina twist, the entire Martian scenario was an invention of Los's vivid imagination-- the indecipherable space message is only an ad for a brand of tire. Los returns home to accept his fate but discovers the shots fired at Natasha missed her; the couple have a tearful reunion. The scientist burns his spaceship blueprints and vows to daydream no longer.

Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (released one year after "Aelita") is his account of the naval mutiny that had great repercussions throughout old Russia.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 IMDb viewer poll rating.

(6.5) Aelita: Queen of Mars (USSR-1924) - Yuliya Solntseva/Igor Ilyinsky/Nikolai Tsereteli/Vera Orlova/Valentina Kuindzhi/Pavel Pol/Konstantin Eggert

TECHNICAL NOTES--

The orthochromatic film used reproduces Kuindzhi's (Natasha) eyes as having no iris.

Aelita's head gear looks like a beat up roof TV antenna, and the Martian soldier uniforms, with their squared-off pasteboard helmets, are laughably quaint.

Print transfer is sharp, but occasionally jittery.

While Aelita is considered one of the first science fiction films, the story focuses on the daily lives of several people after the Russian Revolution and is more of a propaganda film of sorts. The story revolves around a young scientist Los (Nikolai Tsereteli) and his wife Natasha (Valentina Kuindzhi) who symbolizes the new Russia. Each works hard in their respective government jobs although Natasha appears to see more of the hunger, homelessness and fear in the aftermath of the war. The characters of Ehrlich (Pavel Pol) and Yelena (N. Tretyakova)are diametrically opposed to the main characters and characterize the old bourgeoisie Russia, clinging to wealth even if they have to steal it from the "common man". The "good communist", common man is represented by the Red Army soldier Gussev (Nikolai Batalov)who is recovering from his wounds in a local hospital making the most of things and often portrayed singing with a guitar in hand and a smile on his face.

While Los seems happy in his life reconstructing Russia, he dreams of visiting Mars and has long been assembling plans for a spaceship. Through his daydreams the audience is introduced to life on Mars where the working class is enslaved by a monarchy ruled by the King of Mars, Tuskub(Konstantin Eggert). His Queen, Aelita(Yuliya Solntseva), is unhappy with him keeping secrets from her, the biggest of which is a new telescope that allows the King to view distant life. With the help of the energy guardian, Gor(Yuri Zavadsky), Aeilta gains access to the telescope and begins to fall in love with Los and his way of life.

When Los receives a cryptic message at the station where he works, it forces him to move up his plans for space travel. As with most tales of alien expeditions, Los and his fellow travelers are in for more than they bargained for when they arrive on Mars. Aelita convinces Los and the others to help her in creating a slave uprising (perhaps the most propagandist element of the film in forming the Socialist Republics of Mars). But all is not as it seems and Aelita hides a secret that Los could never imagine.

The sets and cinematography are cutting edge for their time as well as the mere idea of Mars travel. The only negative aspect of the film is that it seems somewhat disjointed at times and the cut scenes are more to what is happening rather than actual dialogue as in later silent films. Also, the musical score on the DVD is not as good as in some other films making it somewhat tedious to watch. Sifting through the communist components of the script may be difficult at times but Aelita is a must see for sci-fi film enthusiasts.