AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS

AELITA: QUEEN OF MARS (vt, AELITA: THE REVOLT OF THE ROBOTS; source on this vt: Film Architecture: From METROPOLIS to BLADE RUNNER); Wikipedia: "In the United States, Aelita was edited and titled by Benjamin De Casseres for release in 1929 as Aelita: Revolt of the Robots"). Yakov Protazanov, director. Fedor Ozep, script, from Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 novel Aelita also known as Aelita, or The Decline of Mars).[1] USSR: Mezhrabpom-Rus, 1924. B/W silent with Russian intertitles. 113 minutes.[2] Film Architecture lists sets by Sergei Kozlovsky, Isaac Moisseyevitch Rabinovich, Victor Simov, Alexandra Exter (but see below on Exter's credit).

Wikipedia entry notes AELITA: "One of the earliest full-length films about space travel, the most notable segment remains its remarkable constructivist Martian sets by Isaac Rabinovich and Victor Simov and costumes designed by Aleksandra Ekster. Their influence can be seen in a number of later films, including the Flash Gordon serials and probably Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Woman in the Moon[3] and the more recent Liquid Sky".

See for underground city with workers and Machines (cf. METROPOLIS) and what appear to be soldiers looking roboticized (still, Film Architecture p. [93]): "Even the subterranean caves in which an army of helmeted slaves works are spacious and reveal enormous machines with armatures and expressively painted giant flywheels. Among the many compelling inventions in the Martian city is a fan-door, operating like a camera's shutter [...]" (Film Architecture p. 92).

RDE, finishing, 26May23