Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

FrOM the CradLe tO the GraVe:
COSMONaut NOStaLGIa IN SOVIet aNd pOSt-SOVIet FILM
257
resources spared. his allocation of flm stock far exceeded the normal budgets
of the time. 11
protazanov took advantage of his prestige and drew on then-dormant
russian artistic resources. he hired established russian stage actors, such as
Nikolai tsereteli, and ofered the frst screen roles to new actors Igor Ilinsky,
Iuliia Solnetseva, and Nikolai Batalov, all of whom later became Soviet flm
stars. Modernist artist Isaak rabinovich designed the massive Constructivist
sets for the Mars scenes. In addition, alexandra ekster designed the modernist
Martian costumes just prior to her departure from the Soviet union. 12
as a completed flm, Aelita was almost two hours long—very long for the
standards of the time. 13 It was popular among the flm going public. rumors
circulated that the director was unable to view the opening due to overcrowding. 14
Most importantly, Sovkino was able to distribute the movie throughout europe,
thus earning hard currency, improving the Soviet union’s balance in foreign
trade, and making a proft for future productions. as a measure of his success,
protazanov went on to make ten more silent flms in the next six years and
continued to make movies until two years before his death at the age of 63 in
1945. 15 In spite of the taints of having returned from abroad after the revolution
and producing an ideological suspect flm as his inaugural post-Soviet flm,
protazanov survived better than other, more revolutionary flmmakers.
as an adaptation of tolstoy’s novel, Aelita was the frst Soviet science fction
flm. It infuenced subsequent and internationally better-known european
11. protazanov’s production of Aelita was clearly a priority for Sovkino, as the expense of the
project revealed: “the production history of Aelita indicated that protazanov prepared for
his Soviet debut with great care and forethought, but without political foresight. though
schooled in the breakneck pace of pre-revolutionary flmmaking, averaging more than ten
flms annually before the revolution, he took over a year to complete Aelita. according to
the handsome programs that was distributed at screenings of the picture, protazanov shot
22,000 meters of flm for the 2841-meter flm (a 3:1 ratio was the norm) and employed a case
and crew of thousands.” Youngblood, Movies for the Masses, p. 109. advertising for the flm,
too, was unprecedented. almost a year prior to its release, Soviet flm newspapers and journals
reported on the status of the production. In the weeks leading up to the opening in Moscow,
Pravda advertised teasers for the perspective Moscow audiences. aleksandr Ignatenko, “Aelita”:
Pervyi opyt sozdaniia blokbastera v rossii (Sankt-peterburg: Sankt-peterburgskii gosudarstvennyi
universitet kino i televideniia, 2007).
12. Gillespie, Early Soviet Cinema, p. 11. although ekster associated with the Constructivists, she
considered herself to be an art nouveau designer as she did not adhere to the Constructivist
tenets of utility. She immigrated to paris in 1925. Christina Lodder, Russian Constructivism
(New haven, Ct: Yale university press, 1983), pp. 153-155 and 242.
13. protazanov, Aelita: Queen of Mars.
14. Mike O’Mahony,“aelita,”in The Cinema of Russia and the Former Soviet Union,ed.Brigit Beumers,
24 Frames (London:Wallfower, 2007), p. 37.
15. andrew J. horton,“Science Fiction of the domestic,”Central Europe Review 2, no. 1. January 10,
2000: Kinoeye, February 7, 2007, http://www.ce-review.org/00/1/kinoeye1_horton.html, n.p.