Aelita: Queen Of Mars

Starring: Yulia Solntseva, Nikolai Batalov, Valentina Kuinzhi, et al.

Aelita, The Queen Of Mars is a Socialist science fiction spectacle and in 1924 was the first big-budget movie from Soviet Russia. A year and a half in the making, it was intended as ideologically correct mass entertainment which could compete both in Russia and abroad with the Hollywood films that dominated Soviet and world screens while also earning plaudits for artistic innovation such as had greeted The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and other German expressionist films. Aelita is a fantastic adventure about Los, an engineer living in Moscow, who dreams of Aelita, the Queen of Mars, and builds a spaceship to take him to her. They fall in love, but Los soon finds himself embroiled in a proletarian uprising to establish a Martian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! This story is based loosely upon a novella by Alexei Tolstoy, a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy, who had established a reputation for popular novels, poetry and drama before 1917 and who had just returned to Moscow after emigrating during the Revolution. The director, Yakov Protazanov, was a pre-Revolutionary Russian film giant who was persuaded to give up a successful new career in France and Germany to offer his skill and prestige to the untried Soviet film industry. The most interesting element in this film - the basis for its enduring fame - is its design: amazing "Martian" costumes and sets by the distinguished abstract painter Alexandra Exter and her accomplished protege, Isaak Rabinovich. Informed by cubism and other design trends in France, Italy and Germany, they are executed in the distinctively Russian avant-garde style of the day, known as "constructivism." Despite its long inaccessibility, Aelita has survived in excellent condition. This bizarre and haunting work has at last been restored to view in a first class edition with new English intertitles and a new piano score by Alexander Rannie based upon vintage themes by Sergei Prokofiev. Year: 1924 Length: 111 minutes Director: Yakov Protazanov Starring: Yuliya Solntseva, Igor Ilyinsky, Nikolai Tsereteli, Nikolai Batalov, Konstantin Eggert Music: New piano score by Alexander Rannie based upon vintage themes by Sergei Prokofiev Format: NTSC Produced for DVD by David Shepard From the Blackhawk Films Collection Presented by Flicker Alley

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 889290090942
• Release Date: January 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Publisher: Flicker Alley
• Director: Yakov Protazonov
• Starring: Yulia Solntseva, Nikolai Batalov, Valentina Kuinzhi, Nikolai Zeretelli, Igor Ilinski, Konstantin Eggert
• Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: ntsc
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

'Dream a Little Dream of Me' by The Mamas & The Papas

"Aelita" (1924) is based upon a novel by A. Tolstoy. Produced in the U.S.S.R. (founded in 1922), the movie is set at the beginning of the NEP (New Economic Policy) in December 1921. The version I watched has English titles by Kyril Dambueff and Mark Bennett. Annoying piano music by Alex Rannie. On December 4, 1921, at 6:27 p.m. Central European Time, radio stations on Earth received a strange signal. It is intriguing to see all the instrumentality of the deciphering office. The speculation on Mars is Sort of the first X-Files. Loss (a scientist who is obsessed with going to Mars) imagines Mars with Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva), a vamptress with a fascination with fascinators (a form of headgear). "Touch my lips with your lips as those people on Earth did." Meanwhile, back on Earth, his wife, Natasha (Valentina Kuindzhi) seems to have a thing going with their new male squatter. We have a natural blend of politics and space (or Loss's imagined Mars). I will not go into detail. However, you will need to watch this film to be culturally savvy.