Customer Reviews

Eolomea

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

 

 

There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.
There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to look, time to care,
Someday!
Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere.

There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're half way there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Someday,
Somewhere!
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Now DEFA bring that reality to us in the form of a futuristic space movie. This story is surprisingly well portrayed given the budget and the era of production.

Should we even be exploring space? Some of our spaceships are missing. Are we up against some unknown force or a diabolical plot? Moreover, just who are the good guys and bad guys if any?

Because Professor Oli Tal's (Rolf Hoppe) daughter is among the missing, he goes in search of the answers. Yet it looks like he already knows something.

To add to the confusion or complexity we have a long-distance love story between Daniel 'Dan' Lagny (Iwan Andonov) and Prof. Maria Scholl (Cox Habbema). Will love triumph or is there a higher purpose?
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I have to admit I cheated and watched with subtitles. However, after a while I had to ignore them, as the English translation is not very accurate when an attempt was made to explain instead of, translate. It may have been more useful of the subtitles were in German.
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The DVD contains the standard extras. After watching them you need to re-visit the film.

Remember the famous Pre-WWII German films of Pabst, Monau, Fritz Lang? Okay, the only connection between this film, and those, is that EOLOMEA was filmed in the same Berlin film studios as those other masterpieces. Are you into the German new wave cinema of Fassbinder, Schlondoerf, and Werner Herzog? EOLOMEA's director Herr Zschoche doesnt even come close to those directors. Dont expect anything like Tarkovsky's SOLARIS either. I'm not condemning this film tho. At least this SCI FI film from DEFA Film Studios was not lampooned like another DEFA scifi film, FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS, by Mystery Science theater 3000. The setup for this film is a mysterious message "EOLOMEA" that's recieved on earth, from far away in space. Nobody seems to know anything about it. Then, 8 space ships go missing, and a space station breaks off communication. On top of that is a love story between an astronaut stuck on an outpost observation station on a distant moon, and a woman working on Earth for the space agency. There's lots of flashback cinematic bits here, as the astronaut remembers his vacation on earth, and falling for this woman. Add to the plot some odd politicalized speaches given by the head of the space agency, who's best friend is an elderly astronaut stationed with the love struck male lead on the moonbase. Throw in some space viruses, secret missions, father and son issues, and a live pet turtle, and ZAZAM, you have yourself East German Space cinema circa 1972.

The special effects (read: miniatures), the costumes and sets can't compare to Star Wars, or even 2001 A Space Odyssey, since big budget filming was seen as essencially bourgeois by the DDR. Within its limited budget, EOLOMEA offers a visual presentation of a future where humanity lives in space, with enough realism so you arent laughing at the effects. Space utopianism was a popular SCIFI concept in those days, for communist and capitalist societies alike. Unlike Kubrick's 2001, this philosophical pretense is spelled out specifically by speaches given to world delegations, or personal convictions shared while drunk. The poetic vision of Kubrick or Tarkovsky is simply not here. Instead, there's a futuristic Utopianism centered around the EOLOMEA message, without the complexity or depth of SOLARIS. That leaves you with a film which needs a certain amount of generousity on the part of the viewer, and even a couple of "Screenings", before the various themes and storylines make sense. Lots of confusion is generated by the flashbacks, all the little subplots, and overly obvious subterfuges. Maybe three stars is too hard for the film itself. If you judge it as a film nearly 40 years old, produced in a small central european country with a completely alien social and political system to ours, employing a limited budget in the attempt to achieve near Hollywood styled realism, then this is nearly a four star film. Also, the DVD includes some nice bonus features, including insightful interviews with the effects cameraman, and costume designer. I was entertained as much by the "Foreign" quality of the genre, the wacky socialist themes layered over everything, and the 70s fashions, as I was by the film's plot and visual appeal. If you are in the market for a purely entertaining space ship adventure, that includes realistic, exciting special effects, and dramatic, tension filled interpersonal conflicts, tied into a steamy love story, then EOLOMEA is going to disappoint you. The movie has SOME of those things, but not like the modern american SCIFI viewer has come to expect. If you can accept EOLOMEA as an old East German Scifi flick from 1972, a product of its time, then it has a certain appeal, a quaint charm.. A film like this might appeal to you, if you like other Space scifi from the early 70s, like SILENT RUNNING, or JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. In addition, the film will appeal to students of German language and culture, as a peak behind the Iron Curtain, into a Soviet country that no longer exists.