Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924)

How sad is this?

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's always interesting to see a work of fiction have sequences imagined by characters within the work itself, because it is an occasion to watch a story move along a sliding scale of "not real" to "also not real". "Aelita: queen of mars" is a movie outwardly comprised of two sections- the "real" parts on earth and the "fantasy" parts on mars. But of course the scenes on earth are just as much fantasy as the rest because of their very appearance in a fictional film. This imaginary line between the fake and the even more fake is especially carefully tread after our protagonist, Los, returns from his 6 months away from home. Los and his narcissistic fantasy (of the queen of mars becoming utterly infatuated with him) come crashing together after he shoots his wife. Or at least that is one perspective of the events, but stating that scenes up to that point were grounded in reality creates some incongruities.I do not believe that Los shot his wife, instead I think that that scene was also in his mind. His ability to accept and forget his wife's death goes against the jealous and insecure character we've seen from him. His attitude towards his wife's murder doesn't make sense unless it's in the context of the rest of his fantasy.There is an interesting dynamic between fantasy and reality throughout the film that is further emphasized by the over-acting in many of the scenes trying to be presented as real. The acting and the characters constantly give a jarring reminder to the audience that even in the 'real' scenes we are still watching a film, and unfortunately this hurts the experience. Other than the jumps between fantasy and reality, this movie is not very interesting and hard to watch.

Considered the first Russian science-fiction movie, Aelita can be viewed as a combination of dream and reality, an intricate portrayal of different worlds and different topics. The film I believe has some memorable scenes, which can be regarded as good cinema, and also the film nicely experiments with techniques like flash-back and dream-like states. On the other hand, the movie has its flaws and one can only wonder how this promising work could have been handled by merely simplifying the overly-complex plot.Loss, a Russian engineer who is obsessed by deciphering an intercepted radio message, portrays the typical scientist whose dream is to conquer the planet Mars.One of the interesting features of this film is the nice blend of the fictional world with the complicated outer reality of marriage and Russian society. Loss seems to be happily married and in love with his wife. Reality is constructed around the two lovers, with characters interacting usually at their work places and having their own distinct worlds. Strengths of the plot are the humorous and ridiculous scenes that appear throughout, and which complement the more serious and dramatic ones. Many of them are not directly related to the plot. For example, we have the humorous discourses of the neighbors of Loss who share their nostalgia for the past, or the silly detective who tries in vain to get a job as a policeman. There are good close-ups capturing the inner lives of diverse characters. Society with its hardships is also portrayed (smuggling of sugar, bribes), a result of this being that we have a rich picture of personal and collective lives in 1920s Moscow.On another plane, there is the fantastical world of Loss's imagination where he pictures Aelita in love with him. She seems to give life to the planet through her curiosity, energy and practice of arts like painting or singing. She wants to touch lips with a man like people on Earth do. We may view the queen of Mars as a symbolic figure that replaces Loss's wife in the dream. Overall, the comparison between the two planets seems to emphasize the humane feelings and principles that people on Mars may long for. A political element is also introduced, through the revolution of the workers wanting to embrace communism. At this point, the film seems to be pretty propagandistic, although we are not sure if this point should be taken seriously or not (after all, it is in a dream). The setting and costumes are very interesting and create an outer-worldly atmosphere, which makes the overall dream scene successful.The main weakness of the film I believe is the combination of too many ideas and scenes, that although interesting complicate the plot too much. Many characters are introduced with subplots, which I am not sure serve a good purpose (there are some comical ones, but overall the subplots are too many and the viewer has difficulty following what is going on). I think there is too much drama at some point and several aspects of the movie which, if simply removed, would make the movie much more agreeable to watch.

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.

Having seen so many early movies pushing the communist agenda, I have tired a bit. To be fair, it was certainly creative of the filmmaker to use the science fiction genre and space travel to make a point. The characters represent either the old ways or the new. There is a comfort in being the ruling class and prospering on the backs of the disenfranchised. The Martians are dealing with the same thing. They seem to have devices to watch the earth and keep what is going on a secret. Until love forces things out in the open. The images are interesting curiosities of the time. I had never heard of this film and when I saw the title I thought it was one of those schlock films of the fifties. It is interesting, though slow moving. I was amazed when the wife got shot but, of course, we find out later that things aren't quite as they appear. See it just to get an idea of the type of film being made.