First Spaceship on Venus
by Kurt Maetzig
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ignacy Machowski, Julius Ongewe, Michail N. Postnikow, Oldrich Lukes, Yoko TaniDirector: Kurt Maetzig
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Joachim Hasler
Editor: Lena Neumann
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 79 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-09-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Crown International Pictures
Movie Reviews of First Spaceship on Venus
Movie Review: Old films make cheap targets for bad reasons
Summary: 5 Stars
Honestly, I love this film and have since the first time I saw it back in the Sixties. Anyone who's ever made a film (and most critics of these "low budget" films certainly haven't!) will tell you that creating fantasy scenery and environments with minimal materials is a high art. Please, I encourage you types, take, say, $50,000 and see where it gets you. No cheating, no CGI. Sounds like a lot of money? Well, today even $500,000 isn't a lot of money!
This is why this film, THX1138, and Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (among other so-called "cheap" 50s and 60s films)are held in high esteem by people like Martin Scorcese. Other flicks such as the original Solaris take hits too from various uninformed critics but Tarkovsy spent all his money on the space station; that's where the action takes place. It was, no doubt, a difficult decision but ultimately the best one for the film. The space station is fantastic.
As far as wooden dialogue goes please hold judgement until a non-dubbed version is available. You want a shock? Watch the dubbed Mysterians (A great Japanese film) and then watch the subtitled version. It's the difference between Hello Kitty and Seven Samurai. Americans seemed (and still seem) to have nothing but disdain for foreign product--the English dubbing was often jokey and disrespectful as it was just recently for Godzilla 2000.
Want another shock? Dig up, say, the remastered, wide-screen Gozilla vs Monster Zero and get humble. The art direction in this film is as good as, if not at times better, than anything Hollywood was doing at the time (I'd argue better--the Japanese clearly tried harder). Also get over the guy-in-rubber-suit-as-monster complaint. Find a decent alternative. Sorry, stop-frame doesn't work--you need to animate all the destruction too. Harryhausen used very limited destruction in his flicks because of that problem; same with George Pal. Ever make an animated film (and not on a computer)? It's a real joy, let me tell you.
As far as this film goes, nobody should say boo until they see the full 130 minute subtitled version in restored color, in other words, the film the darned East Germans made in the first place. How can anyone dare to complain about a chopped insensitively dubbed movie? It's like criticizing King Lear based on the Classic Comics version or the Barber of Seville based on the Bugs Bunny version! I'm really understanding these days why all great artists and writers had serious problems wth critics. Or go buy the Russian Ilya Murometz movie listed on Amazon and see what incredible things these Commies could do in the fantasy realm. That film will surprise you.
As far as older movies go, I encourage people to suspend disbelief for a few hours, don't TRY to pick the film apart or get smug because you think The Matrix was cooler, and bask in the phenomenal imagination and creativity that's apparent in many of these productions. This particular movie has stunning ideas executed with considerable imagination and professionalism. Eventually you'll notice a disturbing thing: there are often many more novel ideas and great touches in these films than in contemporary ones.
Seems like the last batch of outer space movies I saw, including the plain awful recent Star Wars release (please complain to me about wooden acting in 50s movies after that!)were stuffed with dull and lackluster props, robots, and spacecraft. Interestingly the most imaginative stuff in the last Star Wars movies was retro--influenced by 50s design! Find me anywhere better Robots than Robbie, from Forbidden Planet, and the one from Visit to a Prehistoric Planet. Find me a spookier robot than the one from Devil Girl from Mars. Writing as a professional designer who's built a few robots, including an animated six-foot Star Wars item, Robbie is an unqualified masterpiece. I am still STUNNED by him, as you should be too.
Please, regarding these old movies, BE VERY HUMBLE. Many of them have wonderous qualities we've lost track of. For example I'd cite the underwater shots of the Nautilus from the Disney's 20,000 Leagues, the magical moon interiors from First Men in the Moon, and the stunning and enchanting trip to the moon sequence in the 1940s Baron Munchausen, let alone the nighttime Zeppelin shots in the 1930s Hell's Angels. It's the sort of breathtaking work--sublime beauty of the highest order--you just don't see in this hit-you-in-the-head-with-a-sledgehammer day and age. Gad, find me sublime ANYTHING these days. The word is off our radar screen.
Summary of First Spaceship on Venus
FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS - DVD MovieIn a utopian future of universal peace and brotherhood--1985 to be specific--a mysterious artifact found in Siberia is discovered to be a message from Venus. While the recording is studied, an international team of scientists is rocketed off to make contact with the mysterious planet. It takes the film some time to get going (worldwide harmony makes for a beautiful future but pallid drama when everyone gets along so nicely), but things begin to cook once they land on the misty wasteland of Venus. Swarms of metal bugs hop from glassy mutant trees and bubbling black mud oozes after our astronaut heroes, but no Venusians can be found amidst the geodesic architecture and buzzing power plants. What they discover instead is a terrifying conspiracy wrapped in an anti-war parable. Based on a novel by Polish science fiction legend Stanislaw Lem (whose work also inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris), this German science fiction adventure is a visual treat, from the sleek, grand, silver spaceship and a funky purple Venus landscape of alien ruins and crystalline bubbles. Decently (if prosaically) dubbed and trimmed down to a brisk 78 minutes, it's an entertaining triumph of psychedelic art direction and desolate alien weirdness presented in all its brightly colored, widescreen glory. --Sean Axmaker
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