Russian films from the era of Leninism, before the fall of the wall, continue to fascinate me. For that reason I bought the DVD Aelita, without really knowing the plot. At the time, IMDb was still a big unknown. How dumb can you be? Luckily, I gambled right, because Aelita is quite charming (although she appears to have three breasts). Let me give some, hopefully appetizing, comments. The film is produced during the first years of the Russian revolution, when there is some idealism left, and the Stalinist terror, dogmatism and censorship are yet in their infancy. The film even dares to advocate some freedom of speech. A second advantage is the absence of the adamant (= the very first insect) realism, that prevails in the documentary but terrible plots of Eisenstein (Strike, Potemkin). In fact the narrative is fairly subtle and multi-layered, with a realistic layer, a dramatic layer, and a fairy tale. In my humble opinion the realistic part is the most interesting. We witness the rising Soviet society, just after the civil war has essentially come to a conclusion. The soldiers return home, and life again takes its normal course. The Leninists and Soviet leaders begin to organize their new society. The planning starts with the distribution among the people of the production, for the time being in kind. It is still a diet, meaning die with a t, with insufficient proteins, meaning in favor of young people. The housing is reorganized, and the common people are lodged in the former gentleman's houses. It reminds of this other giant epos, Doctor Zhivago. The bourgeois and nobility are ostracized (reduced to the size of an ostrich), and mourn their lost wealth. In secret they try to continue their old way of living. Some of these former rich become engaged in illegal and even criminal activities. Money is not everything, but it keeps the kids in touch. Fortunately the main characters of Aelita are decent workers and engineers. The dramatic part shows the consequences of jealousy in a workers marriage. I am not an expert on the subject, but I suppose that this part intends to describe the evils of the bourgeois life style and morals. Eventually we learn, that this sad story line only exists in the imagination of our sympathetic "hero". Leninism is the catalyst (names of cows written in alphabetical order) of cooperation, honesty and trust. Finally, the fairy tale part is a parable of the proletarian revolution, but in an imaginary world. Here the revolution of the workers is led by a king, a bit like in "Metropolis" - indeed Aelita does not excel in originality. Since the workers do not make their own revolution, they become the victim of a bourgeois betrayal - unlike the Metropolis plot. They are just instrumental in a regime change in the bourgeois system itself. Obviously this is meant to be an arraignment (stormy weather). Fortunately in the end the main characters are lucky enough to find themselves back in the real Soviet world, miserable though it may be. What more do you want from a Leninist film? If you prefer modern versions of the Leninist ideology, I recommend "The Garage" or "Moscow doesn't believe in tears". In addition many of my reviews concern Leninist films from East-Germany. Oh and unless you are totally bored, don't forget to check off "useful: yes".

I was always looking forward to seeing this, because I love classic science fiction in general, and I also enjoyed the original book by Aleksei Tolstoy. Unfortunately, they messed up his story in the worst way, removing all the vague criticism of the revolutionary urge, and actually turning the bulk of his book into a dream sequence.Most of the film has nothing to do with science fiction..... the entire first half is setting up 3 characters who have nothing to do with each other until we are well into the final half of the film. The direction is tedious, mostly in medium long shots. The "Queen of Mars", who in the book was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the universe, looks like a teenage boy.At the worst possible point, the film devolves into Soviet propaganda, complete with burning letters for the date of their revolution 10/25/17 and a hammer and sickle. I guess the Soviet government thought that this film would be popular abroad because of the sci-fi and the effects, and that it would indoctrinate people in their revolutionary ideas. But there are basically no ideas here, except that the workers on Mars have to wear boxes on their heads and live underground. The effects are not very impressive compared to what Lang was doing at UFA.There are some interesting design elements in the costumes, but that's about it as far as any kind of retro sci-fi appeal. The story is painfully ludicrous.... we're expected to feel sympathy for the hero's girlfriend, because she just can't resist the pleasures of pre-revolutionary Russia (like chocolate and waltzing). At the end, the hero burns his plans for a spaceship, because "we have more important work to do here" (hello.... Sputnik?). I'm sure a lot of fellow travelers felt quite that way about Protazanov's bulky film.

A remarkable film from 1924, of immense historical interest. See the turbulence of Russia as it was just a few years after the 1917 revolution and the subsequent war 1918-21 against the foreign-backed White Army. But see it all in the context of a most amazing futurist film, at least the equal of the other two equivalent futurist greats from Germany and Britain - Metropolis (1927) and High Treason (1928), respectively. Arguably it is the best of the three, with avant garde sets and costumes that could have come straight out of the Bauhaus' choreography workshop. The version shown on Australian TV had a presumably later added music score that was just so perfect and integrated to the film's plot and visuals that it could not possibly have been better had it been original. It had a mesmerising robotic, minimalist, mechanical and repetitive character that was simply made for a futurist and surreal film like this. The cyrillic characters of the silent narration only add (for us Westerners, at least) to the mystery and surreality of the whole story, and one can only feel sorry for those who, after all this tour-de-force, feel shortchanged from an unfulfilled need for a more banal storyline. Or aggrieved by the perception of the film as mere propaganda. There's always reruns of Rambo and The Green Berets for you, fellers! It's a pity most cinephiles are oblivious to the existence of this film, as wider availability and screening would ensure its fame as one of the greatest silent, futurist and early modern films.

Aelita is a film riddled with stories of uprisings, rebellions, and communism. What is interesting about this film is that it is seen from two worlds. Hailed as the first science fiction film from Russia, it depicts the social economy in Russia during 1924, and compares it to the Martian capitalist society that is watching from the Red Planet in the sky. A radio signal from an unknown source has been sent all over the world, and while some disregard this as just a innocent jumble of messages, Los, a individualist, yet jealous engineer thinks that it is a message from Mars. He begins work on a space craft that will ultimately take him to the uncharted planet, but also ruin his personal life. On Mars, The Queen, Aelita, has discovered that some of her scientists have created a telescope that can watch the planet Earth up close. Trying not to get caught, odd because she is Queen, she sneaks a peak through the telescope and sees our favorite murderer and engineer, Los. She immediately falls in love with him and even appears in one of his dreams. When he arrives to meet her on Mars, he discovers a world not unlike his own that he was trying to escape. Riddled with similarities, Los must fight for not only for Mother Russia, but for the surrounding red planet.For my first viewing of a silent film, I was unimpressed. I thought that it was going to show a short, simple story that would show me the techniques that Hollywood uses today. While I did see some of sci-fi's beginnings with this film, I felt that it stressed too much on the symbolic nature of these characters instead of developing a story. I will say this, the director is daring to make this film. It involves several character development, a hard task to tackle in the silent film era because it was hard to keep track of who was who. One aspect that I thought was interesting that lost itself in the translation to DVD was the music. This was a harsh film to watch. A little over two hours, it was too much silent film for me. I found myself getting angry at the music, and a headache because I couldn't follow which character was which. I also don't know much about the history of Russia during this time, so I had trouble following why these characters were acting in this style. What I did find interesting was the turn of events in this film. I really never saw them coming. I never thought that Aelita would be such a power hog. The director was again trying to make a statement about life in Russia, but it still made me stop and make sure I was capturing the moment correctly. Had some good psychological moments tied with some great characters that no doubt came from Russian literature. Overall, strong moments with a very weak plot made it a tough watch. I will have to give that it was a powerful film for a silent movie, but just not what I was hoping for or expecting. Check this movie out if you are a big sci-fi history buff. I think this is right in your corner, but for everyone else...I will continue to search for the best.Grade: ** out of *****