101 Sci-Fi films – Aelita (Queen of Mars) 1924

The thing about starting the 101 Sci-Fi Films project at the chronological start of the list is that I get to watch a lot of “firsts” and so it goes this is the first Soviet science film and probably the first silent film in the structure that was my impression of them.  With dialogue slides in the format that I’m used to from the silent era.

Aelita is a complex film that probably speaks more on the political environment in Russia more than the science fiction though this is indeed a science laden film with the main character working on fulfilling his dream of visiting Mars and meeting literally the woman of his dreams the Martian Queen Aelita.

To be perfectly honest I’m not so interested in the socialist agenda or much of the melodrama that surrounds our hero’s quest to reach Mars. His world is crumbling around him as his obsession drives him to distraction and the evil aristocrats attempt to swindle and undermine the workers.

The visuals on Mars are extraordinary from a design point of view, a completely realised Martian aesthetic with aperture opening and closing doors and geometric instruments and devices.  There are what at first appear to me to be robots or at least cyborgs (it’s the Martian military – body armour) as well as impressively alien costumes especially the headwear.

Ultimately the Martian society reflects the Soviet one and the society suffers the same struggles as its counterpart. At least this is my impression, I’ll admit once I got past admiring the designs the story itself felt, and you have to excuse the term but it felt a world away.

Aelita does feature the concept of cryogenics with a third of the workforce on Mars being placed in storage about halfway through the film.

Once again YouTube comes to the rescue and you can watch the film online via it, though the video is broken up in several parts.

This film gets bogged down in the day to day life in Russia, the virtue of the previous silent films was that they weren’t very long whereas Aelita really drags towards the middle in sequences that don’t really seem to add to the impact of the overall story except to show the main character as a consistent and diligent worker who’s life is ruined by his dreams of going to Mars and the evil of the corrupt. The addition of a comedic police officer does not help matters.

The science fiction elements are all excellent, there’s half a great science fiction movie in there especially when they reach Mars, it’s hard to fault the rest as it’s a product of its time and culture and to some degree it sets the scene though it’s a labour.

It’s no wonder that the Soviet people loved this film especially as the workers rose up on Mars and overthrew the Elders. Apparently a lot of babies were named Aelita.

The end leaves a lot to be desired.

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Next up is the 1925 French film Paris Qui Dort (Paris Asleep or The Crazy Ray) which is a return to the shorter films.  I best hurry it along too if I want to cover off all 101 movies!!

Have you seen Aelita?  What are your thoughts?

What’s next after blu-ray?

Over Christmas my sister and I were discussing blu-rays and someone had told her that the format was already on its way out and would be replaced by a new media soonish. I’d actually given the topic some thought over the last year or so and have formed some strong opinions which I thought I’d share here.

I don’t think that blu-ray will ever be as big as DVD, I don’t think it will get the opportunity.  It’s not that it’s not a superior product and I am convinced one day it will outweigh the DVD market but I don’t think it will reach the same heights that DVD has.

The next format is digital.

By which I mean it won’t have a physical media attached to it, the future is on-demand / streamable / downloads, it’s not a physical item that you’ll display in your lounge room on a shelf. Of course there will still be people who want that, I think these people will probably turn to blu-ray as blu-ray players become very cheap and integrated into everyday devices.

See part of it is about what device you have, if you only have a DVD player then you are probably going to buy a DVD.  DVD players are currently the format of choice in computers, especially Apple products that have no blu-ray support.  Apple has decided that iTunes is their high definition solution rather than blu-ray despite having backed the format when it was up against HD.

Digital downloading of content on demand will only grow as the internet grows, as speeds increase and internet plans become cheaper.  We still have a way to go and things like SOPA won’t help that growth.

In Australia we have a population of around 23 million people, 17 million of those are estimated to be internet users.  I suspect that 22 million of those people have television though and a fair proportion DVD player owners.  As our National Broadband Network* or something similar rolls out I think these figures will shift obviously higher.

Are these relics? (except for the obvious relic...)

I think media companies need to understand this trend and stop seeing media distribution in the go to the shops and buy a disc model.  It’s a dying industry that doesn’t actually know it as I’m sure media consumption via physical media is still on the increase, that bubble will burst though and people like myself who are very attached to owning physical collections of material will reclaim that shelf space and move to virtual libraries that I can take with me where ever I go.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, leave a comment below!

*I’m not debating the virtues of the NBN here. 

Recently on the Midnight Movie Club

The podcast that I co-host with Dan Hughes;  Midnight Movie Club is celebrating a milestone this week as Dan and I recorded our 100th podcast.

To celebrate I present a little piece called “Recently on the Midnight Movie Club

I’m considering how to offer it up as a print and once I work that out I’ll let everyone know where they can order one. If you’re interested let me know.

Star Wars Uncut

You may remember some time ago there were calls for Star Wars fans to submit a 15 second long section of Star Wars filmed in any manner they could which would ultimately be edited into one long re-imagining of the classic film.

Well it’s complete and it is amazing:

The creativity shown by these people is truly amazing and inspiring and even those who’s costumes, sets, acting were all lacking are awesome for contributing.  The sheer number of children acting out scenes with their parents is just great and Chewbacca is played by more than one dog!

If you’ve got two hours to spend on YouTube I say spend some time checking the video out!

Congratulations to the guys who put this together!!!

What’s your favourite bit (mine’s possibly the bit that shows who shot who first)?

Thoughts of a Storm Trooper part 48

I’ve always been perplexed over the inner workings of the Death Star.

I’m surprised that no one carries any kind of identification, that there aren’t cameras all over the place and that they feel the need to “patrol” whilst out in the middle of space where it would be extremely unlikely to have traditional intruders.

No wonder these poor guys are taken aback when they encounter actual intruders.

Also there are no vending machines…