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| A poster for Kurt Maetzig's First Spaceship on Venus |
Today's review is of a rather obscure movie, the East-German/Polish First Spaceship on Venus, an adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem novel called The Astronauts. Pole Lem also wrote the novel basis for Solaris (1972 and 2002) and many other adaptations, but Venus was the first film based on his writings.
Venus takes place in the then sfuture of 1985, in which a spool from another planet is found at a spaceship crash site in the Siberian dessert. An international mission is assembled to journey to Venus to learn more about this civilization. But what they find is disheartening yet eye-opening.
Venus is a curious film, told in bountiful narration, and - on Earth - by a blond reporter. The small crew of the space mission includes an African, two apparently Japanese, some Caucasians and what appears an Indian, the highest standing professor of them all, who works tirelessly to figure out the message on the spool. A natural center for the men on-board is the female voyager Dr. Ogimura (Yoko Tani (The Savage Innocents (1960)), who is described as a "good woman". But - save for a brief indication of nakedness in the beginning, (to get into the spacesuit), Venus doesn't hold any hanky-panky or jokes of any kind. The very scientific team are strictly interested in facts and a sober examination of them, - making them a bit dull as characters.
But then Venus is, first and last, science fiction, and actually pretty good sci-fi: The science talk is mostly convincing, and the suits and sets are well-made. The effects include; zero gravity moving around and laughing, a robot brought along to make initial tests on Venus, the strange landscape of Venus and a kind of black, dangerous porridge that follows them there, as they escape. Several crew members die in the dramatic mission, including the sympathetic and courageous African, who is simply left on Venus.
Venus is an enjoyable science fiction curiosity, sometimes involuntarily comic, as when SPOILER one male crew member dies because the robot drives into his stomach.
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| Hardly 'Mankind's Most Incredible Journey!' - but Kurt Maetzig's First Spaceship on Venus is worth watching |
The details:
German director of Venus Kurt Maetzig had previously done communistic propaganda for the USSR, the so-called 'socialist realism'. Instances of Soviet propaganda is said to flourish some in the long version of Venus, which runs 93 minutes. Unfortunately, I was only able to see the shortened US version of 78 minutes.
The technique of Venus is pretty rough; it continuously uses jump cuts; perhaps due to time restraints, or clearly defined, alternative theory, opposition to Hollywood-film-making or just plain incompetence.
Still, the film is very interesting from a historical standpoint, although many questions about it cannot be answered now, like the one above. Another question would be about the internationality of the crew and particularly the inclusion of the almost pitch black African as a total equal on the mission; was this done as a provocation to the still blatantly racist US, as idealism on the film-maker's part, or is it taken from Lem's novel?
The film shows SPOILER a scary example of the effects of atomic explosions, as the inhabitants of Venus have annihilated themselves, only leaving, literally, their shadows. In this way, Venus seems to carry an anti-A-bomb-message. - Something that was also heavily prevalent in the American 'atomic-scare'-sci-fi-movies of the 50sand 60s.
Mostly the film seems deeply humanistic in its viewpoint, but then again, perhaps the original version is different. So many questions.
In any case, this Forbidden Planet (1956)-reminiscent, minor science fiction gem is worth searching out for anyone interested in SF, history and 60s space exploration.
Related review:
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark
Watch a short trailer for the film here
Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown - but it apparently sold more than 4 mil. tickets in East Germany, so there's a good chance it was a hit
= Unknown
What do you think of First Spaceship on Venus?
Can you answer any of the many questions from my review?
Have you seen other Stanislaw Lem-adaptations and if so, how were they?
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