Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) on Netflix
NR19241h 51mAdventureDramaFantasy
In Moscow in 1921, a mysterious radio message drives engineer Los to dream of Mars, where Queen Aelita watches him through a telescope. At home, his jealousy over his wife Natasha grows.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.3/103,154 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Moscow, 1921, at the start of the New Economic Policy. Radio stations around the world pick up the same puzzling signal, and engineer Los, who is fixated on the idea of traveling to Mars, takes it as a sign. He imagines Mars ruled by Tuskub, where aristocrats live above ground while laborers are kept below and put into cold storage until they are wanted. Aelita, the queen there, studies the Earth through a telescope and becomes drawn to him. On Earth, the minor official Erlikh swindles Los's friend Spiridonov and pesters Los's wife Natasha, and Los's jealousy sharpens. An amateur detective the police turned down, Kratsov, takes an interest in Spiridonov's disappearance.
Cast
- Nikolai Tseretellias Evguieni Spiridinov
- N. Tretyakovaas Yelena, Ehrlich's Wife
Show all 20 cast
- Nikolai Tseretelias Engineer Los / Spiridinov
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the music for Aelita and played it himself on the piano at the film's screenings in Leningrad cinemas.
- About half a year before Aelita's premiere, the newspaper Kino-Gazeta began publishing advertisements reading "ANTA… ODELI… UTA…", later explained as a mysterious radio signal received worldwide, and as the premiere neared Pravda printed the signal as a hint.
- Aelita's constructivist Martian sets, by Isaac Rabinovich and Victor Simov, and costumes by Aleksandra Ekster are its most noted element, and their influence shows in the Flash Gordon serials and probably Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Woman in the Moon.
