Aelita, a Silent Soviet Science Fiction Film

     Soviet cinema of the 1920s possessed a dynamic character as if, through the arts, the new state established in 1917 wished to present its latest works as thrilling experiments in editing, direction, cinematography, and visual style.

     Aelita (1924), directed by Yakov Protazanov, adds art direction and set design to these elements.  Some of the action, taking place on a Mars ruled by a stern fellow named Tuskub and his Queen Consort, Aelita (Yuliya Solntseva, who later directed several films, one as recently as 1980), unfolds on grand sets with enormous, sweeping stairways and strange angles cutting across circular forms.  The society on Mars is completely regulated, one third of the workers kept in cold storage until needed.

     This striking scene shows workers, heads covered with block-like helmets, trudging to slides where they whoosh down to a processing room, loaded like frozen fish onto a conveyor belt.

     The authoritarian and absolute monarchical practices of the Martians are contrasted with the boisterous proletarians of the Soviet Union.  Quite a few scenes in the film depict the lives of a large number of characters inhabiting a stew of melodrama.  Found footage of industrial workers and large engineering projects are used in the movie.  A pro-Revolutionary theme pops up now and then, especially near the end when Earth visitors to Mars get involved in trying to rouse the Martian workers to revolt, led by Aelita, who turns immediately to tyranny.

     Aelita and her astronomer, with his ingenious telescope, pinpoint scenes of life on Earth.  She falls in love with Engineer Los (Nikolai Tsereteli) who, after picking up on radio the weird message, "Anta Odeli Uta," concludes, without much evidence, the signal came from Mars.  He and his colleague, Spiridinov, proceed to work on building a spaceship.  

     Meanwhile, Ehrlich, a Party official, takes up residence at Los's building, flirts with Los's wife, bringing Los to despair, even as he finds his mind drawn to Mars and the beguiling Aelita, who seems to be in some kind of contact with him.  Ehrlich steals sugar, hoards various goods, is a corrupt "bad apple" type, a symbol of that occasional bad Communist who should be uprooted from the body politic.

     Los eventually kills his wife and flees to Mars in company with two others.  He meets Aelita, who welcomes him gladly for a Martian night of love.  The ruler, though, puts Los and his two companions in the workers' caves.  Los and his fellows teach the workers the meaning of the hammer and sickle; of the industrial worker and the peasant forming the dictatorship of the proletariat.  

     The chaos and craziness on Mars dissolves to Los on a Moscow street, looking at an advertisement for tires, including the words, "Anta Odeli Uta."  He seems to have imagined the whole thing; Mars, Aelita, the trip in space, the killing of his wife, too.  He goes to his home and finds her alive.  He vows to stick to earthly matters from now on.

     The "It was just a dream" motif in some films usually irritates me.  This time, it produced a shrug. I did enjoy the weirdness of the Martian costumes, the big sets and the peculiar geometry on display.  The film's propaganda elements didn't surprise me, but they also seemed clunky in a movie so willing to explore an interplanetary theme.  The Martians act as observers of earthly affairs and in the end act as a way of contrasting with all too human political matters then unfolding in 1920s Russia, Aelita and her husband standing in for the just recently departed monarchy of Nicholas II and Alexandra.

Vic Neptune