The Future of Sci-Fi as Seen in a Silent Past

The Silent Movie Theatre launched its first Sci-Fi Week on Tuesday night witha talkie, H.G. Wells’ “Things to Come” (1936), but its highlight is tonight’s offering, Yakov Protazanov’s “Aelita, Queen of Mars” (1924).

One of the earliest science-fiction fantasies, “Aelita” was largely unheard of and unseen until it was shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a decade ago. It has not been screened locally since.

*

Echoing “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” in the boldly geometric design of the sets and costumes in its Martian sequences and anticipating “Metropolis” (which screens Friday and Saturday) in its social protest, “Aelita” is never-theless a highly idiosyncratic work, its deliberately choppy narrative probably intensified by a reported paring down of its originalrunning time to its current 87 minutes.

Very loosely adapted from the Tolstoy novel, “Aelita” plunges us into the chaotic aftermath of the Russian Revolution--a desperate time of food shortages, illegal profiteering and mass evacuations. The film’s central figures are Los (Nikolai M. Tsereteli), an intense Moscow radio engineer, and his attractive wife, Natasha (Valentina Kuinzhi).

The plot swiftly becomes all but impenetrable, but it reflects the moral and economic chaos of the era. It turns upon Los imagining a curious code picked up at Radio Moscow to be a message rom Mars, coupled with his fascination with space travel and his chronic jealousy in regard to his wife.

As an escape from his increasing anxiety, Los envisions a trip to Mars, where he falls in love with its exotic princess Aelita (Yuliya Solnitseva)--the “Queen” in the film’s English title is a misnomer. Mars, however, is no Utopia but a cruel fascist state ruled by Aelita’s father and his key inventor. It is a society of privileged elites and of worker slaves who live entirely underground and are subject to being frozen for future use. In short, Mars is ripe for revolution. . . .

“Aelita” offers a jolting contrast to the Russian silent classics and their celebrated use of montage. In its overstated “emoting” and in the spectacular aura of its Martian sequences, it more recalls the silents of Cecil B. De Mille. It is a brisk plunge into the hardships and uncertainties of the fledgling Communist state.

*

The design of Mars, principally the work of Viktor Kozlovsky (sets) and Alexandra Ekster (costumes), has been described variously as Cubist, Futurist and Constructivist. Whatever the correct label, its key motif is the triangle. The costumes bring to mind those of Erte and also those of Natasha Rambova for Nazimova’s “Salome.”

The razor-sharp print reveals in full measure the dexterity and spontaneity of cinematographers Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky and E. Schoneman, who would have been right at home in the cinema of the French New Wave.

The resurfacing of “Aelita, Queen of Mars,” a popular success although idely disparaged upon its original release, should ensure its rightful place in the Soviet cinema.

* Sci-Fi Week at the Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. “Aelita, Queen of Mars,” today at 8 p.m. “The Lost World” (1925), Thursday, 8 p.m. “Metropolis” (1926), Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. with live rock music by the Kevin Hayes Orchestra. Information: (323) 655-2520.