AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS
Ms. Hen recently watched AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS, a Soviet era
silent sci-fi film from 1924. This is not the usual kind of movie that Ms. Hen
enjoys. After watching the film, she is still on the fence about silent movies.
She prefers talking, even if it is in a foreign language. She does watch a lot
of foreign movies with subtitles, and even though she can’t understand what they’re
saying, she likes that there is dialogue.
It’s difficult for today’s viewers to get used to a film
without dialogue. Without people speaking, the film has to rely on visuals, and
AELITA shines in this area. The scenes that show of the Soviet people working
in their ordinary lives are honest and bleak. The scenes of Mars are shiny and
full of deconstructionist triangles and rectangles. The shadows lurk on Mars
ominously. The Queen’s costumes are comical, with shiny sticks hanging out of
her head and a dress covering three breasts.
The movie is about Los, an engineer who dreams of going to
Mars. He is having problems with his wife Natasha and their new housemate.
Aelita, the Queen of Mars, watches them through her telescope. She sees them
kiss and she says to her husband, the ruler, “Touch my lips with your lips as
those people on Earth did.” She falls in love with Los.
Los goes to Mars and meets the queen. The workers have an
uprising because they don’t want to be frozen once their work is done. Los
recommends starting a Mars Soviet Socialist Republic. The Queen questions the
movement, but they still attempt to change things.
Ms. Hen thought it was ridiculous that people on Mars would
be communists. If they did become communists, maybe they should try to get it
right. But human nature doesn’t work with everyone on the same playing field.
But on Mars, they’re Martians. And hens are animals. It could be that humans
screw things up.
Ms. Hen nominates the Martians and the animals to take over
Earth and fix everything. She decided that she doesn’t want to go to Mars, but
she will be content to think about what it would be like on a different planet
with communist Martians.
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