Woman In the Moon
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Movie Reviews of Woman In the Moon
Movie Review: 'Laughter is the Argument of Idiots Against New Ideas!'
Summary: 4 Stars
The Netflix version I watched had clean black cards with white printed lettering rather than the original cards. Still, the movie started out pretty well.
Fritz Lang, the German impressionist silent film maker had created his famous Metropolis in 1927. In 1929, on the advice of his wife, had created Women In The Moon. Despite the cheesy title, it really had some good things going for it.
I read in other sources that real-life Professor Hermann Oberth, who later worked on the Nazi V-2 and, still later, for George Pal on Destination Moon, provided technical input.
The story basically goes like this:
We have a speaker in a lecture hall, the scientist Manfeldt, and everyone there is laughing like crazy, I mean belly laughs! This guy claims that there are mountains of gold on the moon and that soon we will be able to fly a manned rocket to the moon. Gales of laughter ensue!
He gets angry and tells them off to no avail.
Many years later, the professor is an old broken man. Even so, he manages with the help of a few friends, to put together some wealthy backers for the first Moon trip.
These backers seem very interested in the Moon's gold deposits that they suspect are there. When they snatch it, "we will control Earth's gold." Wow! Lang really plays up on greed and corporate chicanery in this film.
Also fascinating is that Lang's research into space exploration and rocketry shows us plans, models and designs that are quite frankly astounding. A three stage rocket was not heard of before this, at least on film.
And the photographs and model drawings of unmanned rockets being shot to the Moon was quite realistic by today's standards. This is the film's strong point, the research, the three stage rocket, the countdown before blast-off and everything we today have come to expect and take for granted. This was revolutionary stuff!
After much arguing, the guys all get together to take off. Someone skywrites in the air the start date of countdown. Cute!
The rocket being rolled out from its building to the launching stage was very prophetic. Placing it in water was not, but that's fine. The illusion of large size with shadows and searchlights is great, as are the crowd scenes and the continual arguments among these astronauts. For example, Helius tries to beg Friede not to go on this trip. Apparently (and this later becomes the case) that he has a crush on her. He begs to her right in front of her fiancé too. Dork. She demands that is he saying a woman is not as brave as they are to venture forth? Doesn't he know " the eyes of the world" are upon them? That buttons his lip and they're off!
Yeah, melodramatic at times. Critics blame Fritz Lang's wife for the love triangles, jealousy and other trifles that pepper this otherwise surprisingly well made story of space travel, complete with rockets and adventure.
When they get to the Moon and they have breathable air, well that was completely wrong. And a boy is a stowaway aboard, and considers he has studied the Moon problem because of his stack of comic books! Suspension of disbelief. I like the shoe straps on the floor and the straps on teh ceiling in case of anti-gravity. They thought of all kinds of problems in space. Everyone wears bulky sweaters or a suit and tie, however.
Interesting special effects of brandy floating in the air and catching it in a shot glass. Sehr gut!
Plot holes abound (how is there gold on the moon, anyway?) but quibbles aside, a historical film, and historically important to the world of cinema. Recommended!
Other Fritz Lang Features:
Fritz Lang's M DVD (1931), Film Noir Masterpiece of German Expressionism Starring Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Gustaf Grundgens, and Friedrich Gnass.
Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)
M (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
And a Book!
The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (Distributed for British Film Institute)
Movie Review: An important milestone toward space exploration
Summary: 4 Stars
"Frau im Mond" (Woman in the Moon) is a German silent movie of 1929, direct by the great Fritz Lang ("Metropolis" fame), and deals with a trip to the moon. It is not the first to deal with a voyage to the moon -- that honor goes to George Melies 1902 film, "Le Voyage dans la lune" (Trip to the Moon) -- but it is the first to treat the subject realistically. Along with the 1950, "Destination Moon," it belongs to a trio of films which educated the public on space travel, and provided training for future space scientists, aerospace engineers (I was one), and astronauts.
It is based on a novel of the same name, written by Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou. (She also wrote "Metropolis," and it is probably due to her that a strong woman's role was included in the film.) The name of the film, "Woman in the Moon," definitely sounds silly, but is probably a play on the-man-in-the-moon theme. It also reflects the importance of the feminine character to the plot.
The evolution in technical emphasis is very revealing. Melies makes no effort to be technically sound (other that selecting Jules Verne's cannon over the even less plausible anti-gravity "Caverite" of Wells). "Frau im Mond" does make a serious attempt. In fact, its rocket is in many ways more realistic than that of the 20-year-later "Destination Moon." This realism is largely due to the great rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth, who acted as technical advisor. The launch gantry and launch sequence count-down found in the film were prescient. At the same time, there are curious lapses. Too much is made of the point at which the earth and moon gravity cancel each other - there is nothing very special about this point. In particular, it is not responsible for weightless in space. That Oberth would make such a mistake is inconceivable. Perhaps the makers of the film (principally Fritz Lang) believed the public would not buy weightlessness without this plausible, though spurious, explanation. Incidentally, the film was not a great triumph for Oberth. He was to have produced a flying rocket model for the film. His failure to provide one in time hurt his standing as a practical hands-on engineer.
Another gaffe is that the moon would have enough air for humans to breathe. Again, I suspect the makers of the film knew better, but wanted to avoid the complications of space suits. (Would you really want to hide Friede's sweet face in a helmet?) Then there is the "dousing rod" to find water ... enough said! The business about "lots of gold on the moon" is also silly, but here there is a better explanation - or maybe I should say excuse. When one recalls that during the making of this film Germany was suffering great economic hardships, including hyperinflation, the prospect of Germans finding an unlimited source of gold must have been irresistible.
I characterized this film as the middle one in a trio. There are of course other films which might have been somewhat less influential or less well done, but nevertheless contributed to the dawn of the space age. "When Worlds Collide," "Rocketship X-M," and "The Conquest of Space" are three such films. The list would not be complete with including the fine, non-fiction "Man in Space" series of Walt Disney.
This film has something of a cult following, and there are a number of websites devoted to it. One of the best is http://taoyue.com/film/frau-im-mond.html .
Movie Review: Changed film history like Apollo 11 changed history
Summary: 4 Stars
The impact that Fritz Lang's last silent movie would have on the world is bigger than the impact his film has had on audiences. By this i mean that although the influence of this film can be sensed everywhere--from real-world rocket launches to other space exploration stories--it remains relatively unknown to most people today.
To those who are familiar with it, even the severly edited version that had previously been available before this DVD release, it is most famous for its scientific accuracy in the launching of the rocket, and especially notable for the famous 5,4,3,2,1 countdown, which has since been the definitive rocket launch protocol. Outside of the real world, Lang's vision of space travel proved to be the cinematic archetype for decades, until the new wave of 2001 and Star Wars. It's influence can be seen directly and indirectly accross all genres, even in Abbott & Costello Go to Mars!
One of the common complaints about the story is the scientific inaccuracies, specifically the atmosphere on the moon. It has been validly argued that Lang and his scientific advisors should have been aware that there is no atmosphere on the moon--and they were! What most people overlook in their nitpicking is that the film clearly explains the theory of a partial atmosphere on the dark side of the moon. While this is still scientifically inaccurate to those of us who never knew a time when man had not landed on the moon, this was actually a common device used in pre-Apollo science fiction, prevelant in the Fantastic Four comic books of the 60's (and still present in the Marvel Universe today).
Of course, the film is not limited just to a moon launch and landing. There is a captivating spy thriller that leads up to the climactic voyage. While it's not by any means as exciting as the special effects-oriented half of the story, it would still stand alone as an entertaining movie.
The film has been presented in exceptional clarity for a silent movie, but that's to be expected from industry-leader Kino. My only real complaint about the DVD is the lack of special features, which should be mandatory for any movie with this much history. To Kino's credit, it does include a gallery of fascinating images, ranging from the movie poster, to stills, and behind the scenes photographs. However, it is the first time on DVD (or VHS as far as i can tell), and so an even better special edition will no doubt surface in a few years.
In the end, this film should not be elevated to more than it claims to be--the vision of a moon voyage in 1929--for as anything else it will fall short. Still, it should not be viewed merely as a time-piece or a relic, for all science fiction can become absurd in retrospect. Instead of looking back on it, it is best to look at it as a visionary forerunner looking ahead.
Movie Review: Decent Pulp Sci-Fi
Summary: 4 Stars
Frau im Mond has been given such a bum rap for so long that there never seemed to be much encentive to go out and find the darn thing. Perhaps this discouragement was a good thing considering the film had for so long only been available in badly truncated condition. The recently restored version deserves the kudos the critics have heaped upon it. (However, it is a little frustrating and ironic that Metropolis will be the only major Lang film that will never be available in its original form.)
Yes, the restored Frau has some aspects of Mabuse early on, but nothing reaching the mind melting paranoia of that classic. And yes, care was taken to add some degree of realistic conjecture to the piece. But the recurring images of the 'Nick Carter" pulp magazines (an obvious homage to Tarzan's Edgar Rice Burroughs and his popular John Carter of Mars series) really set the tone here.
This is the kind of sci-fi that was popular in the first half of the last century, with a little bit of futuristic technology thrown in with the heroes and villains and love interests. Lang and Theo, for certain, are very capable craftsman who handle this genre well enough. However, if this film does not quite hit the heights of some of their other collaborations, well that's not much a criticism.
Silent and coming in at almost three hours, this film may not be the first to come to mind for light entertainment. But if you are a devoted Lang fan and have gotten through his more celebrated works already, you certainly won't be disappointed by this piece of diversion.
Movie Review: A movie well ahead of it's time
Summary: 4 Stars
I decided to buy this DVD after seeing the rocket launching sequence on television's `Classic Arts Showcase'. I was amazed that the quality of the miniatures and full-size mockups seemed so far advanced for the year of filming. This is a long film by any standards and must have seemed even longer to audiences viewing this almost eighty years ago. We take for granted that space shuttles are assembled in a large building and are rolled out to their launch site, but we can only imagine what their minds made of this at a time when people were only starting to take to the skies in the most primitive of aircraft. I find it amazing that so many of the movie techniques and clichés that, perhaps, we now criticize for their lack of originality; first saw their use in this film.
I agree that the film could do with a little judicious editing, but the quality of the film together with the excellent music accompaniment make its purchase an obvious choice for any movie buff, especially one interested in science fiction.