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

260 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
Kominternov declares victory in Mezhplanetnaia revoliutsiia (1924) Nikolai Khodataev,
Zenon Komisarenko, and Yuri Merkulov. Mezhplanetnaia Revolutsiia (Interplanetary
Revolution). Animation. Biuro gosudarstvenno tekhnicheskogo kino, 1924. 7:40 min.
Redistributed in: Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to
Perestroika. Films by Jove in Association with Soyuzmultfilm Studio. Executive
Producer: Oleg Vidov. Director/Writer/Producer: Joan Borsten. Restored version (c)
2006. (Films by Jove)
message are startling in their ingenuity.the animation used a combination of hand
drawn cells and cutout animation.although the ideology of Khodataev’s short differed
from that of protazanov, these were the last two portrayals of space travelers
using modernist designs for nearly 40 years.
although creative artists began the portrayal of utopian spacefight in
flm in the 1920s, the science popularizers were about a decade behind in the
production of science fction flms. Kosmicheskii reis (Spacefight) was a 1936 flm
that was the brainchild of director Vasilii Zhuravlev, a young director who
evaded the ideological controversies that plagued protazanov. 24 In contrast
to protazanov and Khodataev, Zhuravlev’s goal was to portray spacefight
24. Vasili Zhuravlev, Kosmicheskii reis (Space Flight), S. Komarov; K. Moskalenko; V. Gaponenko; V.
Kovrigin; N. Feoktistov; (Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie kinematografi i fotografi (GuKF), 1936),
70 minutes.the english translation of the flm title is sometimes referred to as Cosmic Voyage.