From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Aelita: Queen of Mars released in 1924.
Starring:
Yuliya Solntseva, Igor Ilyinsky, Nikolai Tsereteli
Directed by:
Yakov Protazanov
Genre:
Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA):
N/A
Budget:
N/A
Current IMDb Rating When Reviewed:
6.6
The Synopsis is:
A married chief engineer of the Moscow Radio Station, by the name of Los daydreams of an affair with the Queen of Mars, Aelita (pronounced eye-lita)
Story:
Set in 1920 Russia, the film was loosely based on the book of the same name by Alexei Tolstoy.
There are a few things to consider about the film upon viewing. Firstly, the title cards were originally in Russian so the dialogue and descriptions of what is happening may have not be translated eloquently. And secondly, the film has been severely edited down which may leave many viewers with a lot of questions.
So let me run set up the story for you so you can get an idea of what I mean.
The film starts out with a message from Mars “ANTA, ODELI, UTA” sending the Chief engineer of the Moscow Radio Station, Los and his close friend and colleague who is an engineer, Spiridinov into the desire to reach the planet on a rocket.
Meanwhile at the evacuation center of the kursky Railway Station, Los’ wife, Natasha is tending to the needy orchestrating provisions for their war torn world. There we meet Gusev, an injured army soldier who falls in love with one of the staff members, Nurse Masha. Then added to the mix we have a swindling couple comrade Erlikh and his wife Yelena are trying to get more than their fair share of rations and stealing from Spiridinov and Natasha any chance they get.
Most people who see this film agree that the film is extremely busy with several characters that are excellently developed, but there are many of them that play minor roles in the outcome of the film. Each plot point stirs simultaneously just before barely converging together by the end.
I could make the excuse that at in 1924, filmmakers were just figuring out the proper format for feature films and storytelling therein… which is true.
I give the film a little slack there, but clearly within the story the filmmakers had an agenda to also make a propaganda film, which is completely fair for them to do, and their audience in 1924 Russia seem to have enjoyed it.
The ironic part is that later in history, the films ideals were not supported by the government.
Pacing:
At an hour and 20 minutes it feels like 2 hours. There are only a few key moments of excitement and you really have to pay attention as not to miss any detail. It all makes sense at the end though.
Challenge:
The challenge in this film is a little murky because we have so many characters, but I will try to break it down to the characters with the most importance to the plot.
In the real world, surviving the results of a war ridden world is the first main challenge, which results in many of the actions of the characters in the film.
The next main challenge is comrade Erlikh and his wife were once rich before the war and now they struggle to gain it back by stealing and gaining cheap conquests.
The next challenge is Los’ imagination. The film spends a lot of time in his daydreams about Mars.
On Mars Aelita uses Gor, the keeper of the planet’s energy, to spy at the more primitive world, earth without the knowledge of Tuskeb, the actual ruler of Mars. It is there that she instantly falls in love with Los as she craves the love and affection she sees him giving to his wife. Aelita herself is a character that at first seems sweet but reveals herself to be manipulative, spoiled and power hungry. She is quite the polar opposite of Natasha.
As a villain, I think she doesn’t pose as a terrible treat, but as a corrupt person with power, she feels alien within the context in the story, but she exhibits many human qualities.
Most of the martians in the film seem corrupt, save for a few.
Tuskeb finds out what she is doing and bans her from spying on earth, meanwhile condemning a third of the slave population to a deep freeze hibernation until they are needed to serve the elders.
It’s actually a fantastic plot going on, on Mars.
Empathy:
Los is our protagonist, but the problem here is that he is not a likeable one. He is dreadfully suspicious of his wife while he is daydreaming of another woman. In the beginning one of the title cards read, “All Los’ brain power and energy have been devoted to one task - to the trip to Mars, and in his imagination he often pictured… Aelita the queen.”
Natasha has to take a back seat. She is not in the clear either. She spends time helping others without considering how it might be hurting Los.
Los assumes the worst and shoots Natasha. It is then that he dives deeper into the dream where he and the Red Army soldier Gusav make a trip to Mars.
There are a lot of misunderstandings among characters that really push the story along.
Technical:
For me, the technical aspects of this film is the most interesting to me. Everything shot in the proposed real world was fine. All good stuff. But what leaves me in awe is all of the scenes on Mars where we have these amazing costumes and head pieces. I just loved all of the designs and hardware built into the costumes that were quite innovative.
The fabulous sets were also very expansive and built for the film’s actors to prance around the cold steel like terrain.
There were also many miniatures to convey the world as this cold yet advanced society landscaped with angular curves and linear constructs. I was in love with this world, all it needs is some color.
Performances:
I know that it is very difficult for people today to accept the acting styles of the past generations, but I think that this film has a very good balance between the drama we see in films now and the extreme overacting that became a staple in silent films.
Part of the performance was in the makeup and you can see where some actors had special makeup to accentuate various expressions.
At some point in the film, Los pretends to be his colleague Spiridinov, and what most people don’t realize is that the actor playing Los was playing Spiridinov as well from the very beginning.
Best:
The best part of the film for me was everything on Mars. I just love all of the wacky ideas about its society in contrast to earth.
The ending:
The ending is very climactic with a large all out war that left me mesmerized by the costumes and choreography of action.
It does kinda tie up everything fast and snippy for that happy ending, but it does leave you scratching your head why Los destroys his rocket ship plans.
After a few re-watches, I finally came to understand that this was his character arc.
Los’ inability to deal with the reality of his war torn country and the possible loss of his wife is what creates this fantasy of events that lead to his trip to Mars.
When he wakes up from his daydream, he discovers that the mysterious radio transmission was really a hack ad for tires by the brand ANTA, ODELI, UTA.
The obsession with building a rocket to travel space is great, when times are great, but he realizes that he has to stay on earth to face reality where he is needed the most to love his wife and help to rebuild his nation.
Wish List:
I wish the film did not spend so much time developing the characters. There is a lot of flipping back and forth to not just what is going on in Mars, but the socio-economic ramifications of a war torn Soviet Russia, Los’ paranoia, his wife and her job, the swindling couple, Gusav and his love interest.
The idea that a person can fantasize about Mars is a great concept that can be easily achieved today… So I commend the filmmakers for trying to attempt such an advanced story. They didn’t have the skills to pull it off coherently. However, I do wish that the film had been either all about the real world struggles or a real pursuit of space travel to Mars.
Personally, I prefer the latter because of my obvious fascination with sci-fi.
Enjoyment:
This is one of my favorite silent movies. I seem to lean towards the more science fiction stories, where I can see the vision of other worlds at the dawn of film making.
It’s a messy story, but I still find some charm in it.
Besides being timeless stories, movies can also be richly enjoyed by the consumers during the release as we find in this case, where the film was received well to 1924 audiences. However, many who watch this film in the modern age and beyond may find it confusing and boring.
But even among those who dismiss this film, there are some of us that find a great significance besides it’s obvious historical value.
For me, this film is a beautiful time capsule of humanity at an earlier state and yet what timelessly rings true for all humans is their ability to love, understand drama and to imagine worlds beyond our reach.
I look at this film and think to myself, this is where it all began, with movies like these. It gave young kids, future filmmakers in the 40’s and 50’s the creative gumption to believe that they could put their fantasies on screen to inspire the next generation of films.
My Rating:
7.4
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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