The Silent Star
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: First RUN Features
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Movie Reviews of The Silent Star
Movie Review: DEFA Collection Version - UNCUT and with ALL THE EXTRAS!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's a glaring error in the review provided by David Laughton on Oct. 7, 2005. He lists the running time of this DEFA Sci Fi Collection release of SILENT STAR as 80 minutes.
This DVD does NOT run 80 minutes. It runs 95 minutes and is, in fact, the longest version available to date, the additional 15 minutes infusing the film with a much more obvious socialist subtext. It's doubtful there was ever a 130 minute "uncut" version of this film, as claimed in many sources. In all likelihood, that number first surfaced in the Leonard Maltin video guide and was then repeated verbatim in other film publications.
Also, this film contains ALL the extras from the University of Massachusetts library DVD which, at the time of this writing, has been reduced to a more reasonable $24.95 (still cheaper here at Amazon), although certain rights clearances can drive the price of that disc upwards of $124.95 depending on the required use. If the UMass version previously featured commentaries, which I believe it might have, it does not now, which makes it identical to this version.
So, just remember, in case Amazon does not fix this error, this version of SILENT STAR runs 95 minutes and has all the extras contained in the UMass edition. It's also a far superior version, even in its non-anamorphic form, to any public domain DVD bearing the U.S. re-edit FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS.
Summary of The Silent Star
A film by Kurt Maetzig, based on Stanislaw Lem's novel The Astronauts. In this celebrated sci-fi classic, a mysterious object from outer space is found in the Gobi desert. An international expedition, dispatched to Venus to decipher the message it contains, discovers it is a declaration of war-- on Earth!The first sci-fi film made in East Germany by the legendary DEFA film studio, THE SILENT STAR is a masterpiece in story, art and set design, and technology and was the forerunner of 2001: A Space Odyssey and, later, Contact. Based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem (who also wrote Solaris) and made during the U.S./U.S.S.R. space race set off by the Sputnik launch.
In 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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