Aelita: Queen of Mars
About Aelita: Queen of Mars
Engineer Los, in Moscow, picks up a strange radio message and cannot stop thinking of Mars. He builds a ship. With the soldier Gusev he seems to land there, where Queen Aelita has been watching him. Gusev tells the slaves about the revolution at home. Aelita takes command, overthrows her father Tuskub, then orders the army to fire on the workers. Los kills her. He is back on Earth. The message was a tire advertisement, Anta Odeli Uta. He burns the plans.
Cast & crew
More about Aelita: Queen of Mars
Yakov Protazanov directed. Fyodor Otsep wrote the screenplay from Alexei Tolstoy's novel. Emil Schünemann and Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky photographed it. Mezhrabpom-Rus released it on 25 September 1924. It runs 113 minutes. A timed copy runs 1 hour 51 minutes 32 seconds. Yulia Solntseva plays Aelita. Nikolai Tseretelli plays Los. Igor Ilyinsky and Nikolai Batalov are billed, with Valentina Kuindzhi, Pavel Pol, and Vera Orlova.
Themes
Background
The Earth scenes are set in Moscow after the revolution. The Mars revolt is the dream Los has while that life is going on.
Making
Protazanov cuts Moscow rooms against the Martian court. The voyage is revealed as Los's daydream after the radio message is explained.
Look
Emil Schünemann and Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky photographed the Moscow streets and the Martian sets.
Preservation
A print survives, including a copy with English intertitles.
Notes
- On Mars, workers are put into cold storage when they are not needed.
- Los sometimes sees Aelita as his wife Natasha. When he strikes Aelita he sees Natasha.
- Erlikh is arrested for theft once the dream is over.
- The wireless text Anta Odeli Uta is a tire maker's slogan.
- In Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich played his piano music for the film at screenings.
- Benjamin De Casseres retitled an American cut, released in 1929, Aelita: Revolt of the Robots.
Scenes
- Aelita watches Los through a telescope.
- She orders the army to fire on the workers she has just led.
- Los burns the spaceship drawings after the tire slogan is explained.
Influenced by
- Alexei Tolstoy's Aelita
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-aelita-queen-of-mars)
- Wikimedia Commons (Aelita Queen of Mars.webm)
