Aelita (Silent Sci-Fi Film 1924 - US EDITION 2002)

Aelita, also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a 1924 Soviet silent science fiction film directed by Yakov Protazanov and produced at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 novel of the same name. Nikolai Tseretelli and Valentina Kuindzhi were cast in leading roles.

Though the main focus of the story are the daily lives of a small group of people during the post-civil war Soviet Russia, the film's enduring importance comes from its early sci-fi elements. Russia's first big budget science fiction spectacular. "Aelita, the Queen of Mars" is a fantastic adventure about Los, an engineer living in Moscow who dreams of Aelita and builds a spaceship to take him to her. They fall in love, but Los soon finds himself embroiled in a proletarian uprising to establish a Martian Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

In its performances in the cinemas in Leningrad, Dmitri Shostakovich played on the piano the music he provided for the film. In the United States, Aelita was edited and titled by Benjamin De Casseres for release in 1929 as Aelita: Revolt of the Robots.

One of the earliest full-length films about space travel, the most notable segment remains its remarkable constructivist Martian sets by Isaac Rabinovich and Victor Simov and costumes designed by Aleksandra Ekster. Their influence can be seen in a number of later films, including the Flash Gordon serials and probably Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Woman in the Moon and the more recent Liquid Sky. Parts of the plot were loosely adapted for the 1951 film Flight to Mars.

Cast & Characters:
Yuliya Solntseva as Aelita, Queen of Mars
Igor Ilyinsky as Kravtsov, Amateur Sleuth
Nikolai Tseretelli as Engineer Los / Evgeni Spiridonov
Nikolay Batalov as Gusev, Red Army Soldier
Vera Orlova as Nurse Masha, Gusev's Wife
Valentina Kuindzhi as Natasha, Los' Wife (as Vera Kuindzhi)
Pavel Pol as Viktor Erlikh, Sugar Profiteer
Konstantin Eggert as Tuskub, Ruler of Mars
Yuri Zavadsky as Gol, Radiant Energy Tower Guardian
Aleksandra Peregonets as Ikhoshka, Aelita's Maidservant
Sofya Levitina as President House Committe

This is the American edition, released in October 2002. For the shorter remastered edition follow the link: https://old.bitchute.com/video/1eHPTQSvOlKJ/

Extras 1: https://rumble.com/v6ak3sj-aelita-bonus-feature-1.html