This follow-up in silent sci-fi, "Woman in the Moon," to the husband-wife team of director Fritz Lang and writer Thea von Harbou's prior "Metropolis" (1927) excels and suffers in similar ways, if not in the same proportions, to that flawed masterpiece. There is some wonderful production design and camerawork and editing to support it for the rocket launch sequence and the subsequent trip to the Moon. Unfortunately, most of the film, however, is consumed by a convoluted and trite story involving gold on the Moon, spycraft, a criminal organization and a love triangle.
Whereas in "Metropolis," the spectacular designs and characterizations spanned most of the runtime to largely overcome it's often nonsensical narrative, most of "Woman in the Moon" is not that attractive. The first hour plus is an unnecessarily long slog to get to the good stuff, and the production should've cut out more than that. There's a scene that crystalizes this fault quite absurdly where men draw matchsticks to see who gets the short end to solve one particular problem; instead of drawing once and getting on with the better things in the plot, they draw the best out of three times! For fans of the American version of the TV show "The Office," remember Michael Scott's movie when he flips a coin up to seven times to achieve a random result; "Woman in the Moon" basically does the same stupid thing but without the ironic sense of humor--and, even worse, the kid writes down the tally--because I guess three is a lot of numbers to keep track of in one's head. Lang's tendency here to linger on shots also doesn't do the actors any favors when they frequently resort to the overacting school of arm waving and hokey pantomime.
And while the visuals, aided by the excellent modern-day score from Jon Mirsalis that accompanied the KinoVideo version I saw, make for an awe-inspiring cosmic voyage, the characters and the rest of the story work to undermine this. Von Harbou seems to have had a rather dim appreciation of humanity (which is no shock given her later Nazi sympathies) given the character motivation here to travel to the Moon. The protagonist seems to only desire to go to get as far away from the engagement of the woman he loves to his best pal, which backfires when they decide to come along to support him. The professor who planned the whole endeavor is doing it for the supposed gold on the Moon--yes, gold on the Moon. A criminal joins the gang, too, because he and his bosses are also after the gold. Only the stowaway boy seems to be in it for the wonder and excitement. Moreover, once they reach the Moon, half the crew become raving lunatics.
It's a testament to how well Lang depicts the things the film does right that this picture isn't a complete mess. Even the routine romance is done well, with the two never actually declaring their love aloud, but the character expressions and, more importantly, the focus of the camera heavily implies the love affair steadily throughout. Plus, the guy named his spaceship after her. So, the love story surprising worked for me. Additionally, although the lunar surface is all nonsense with an atmosphere, gold and whatnot, the rocketry and the weightlessness in space is scientifically realistic. Given that Hermann Oberth was a consultant on the production, that's not surprising. Later realistic space films have benefited from similar assistance. The Soviet "Cosmic Voyage" (1936), for instance, received the help of another father of rocketry in Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
Another thing I love about Lang is that he clearly understood the self-reflexive visual potential of cinema. Of all the moonshot pictures I've seen before Apollo 11 actually achieved it--"A Trip to the Moon" (1902), "Cosmic Voyage," "Destination Moon" (1950), "Countdown" (1968)--only this one thought to bring a motion-picture camera to the lunar surface. Only Lang and the makers of this film had the forethought to near the cinematic competence of NASA. Besides, much of the point of going to the Moon is lost if you don't record it. I also appreciate the newsreel film-within-the-film scene and the comic-books angle that the kid brings. Outer space may exist in a vacuum, but film doesn't.
Whereas in "Metropolis," the spectacular designs and characterizations spanned most of the runtime to largely overcome it's often nonsensical narrative, most of "Woman in the Moon" is not that attractive. The first hour plus is an unnecessarily long slog to get to the good stuff, and the production should've cut out more than that. There's a scene that crystalizes this fault quite absurdly where men draw matchsticks to see who gets the short end to solve one particular problem; instead of drawing once and getting on with the better things in the plot, they draw the best out of three times! For fans of the American version of the TV show "The Office," remember Michael Scott's movie when he flips a coin up to seven times to achieve a random result; "Woman in the Moon" basically does the same stupid thing but without the ironic sense of humor--and, even worse, the kid writes down the tally--because I guess three is a lot of numbers to keep track of in one's head. Lang's tendency here to linger on shots also doesn't do the actors any favors when they frequently resort to the overacting school of arm waving and hokey pantomime.
And while the visuals, aided by the excellent modern-day score from Jon Mirsalis that accompanied the KinoVideo version I saw, make for an awe-inspiring cosmic voyage, the characters and the rest of the story work to undermine this. Von Harbou seems to have had a rather dim appreciation of humanity (which is no shock given her later Nazi sympathies) given the character motivation here to travel to the Moon. The protagonist seems to only desire to go to get as far away from the engagement of the woman he loves to his best pal, which backfires when they decide to come along to support him. The professor who planned the whole endeavor is doing it for the supposed gold on the Moon--yes, gold on the Moon. A criminal joins the gang, too, because he and his bosses are also after the gold. Only the stowaway boy seems to be in it for the wonder and excitement. Moreover, once they reach the Moon, half the crew become raving lunatics.
It's a testament to how well Lang depicts the things the film does right that this picture isn't a complete mess. Even the routine romance is done well, with the two never actually declaring their love aloud, but the character expressions and, more importantly, the focus of the camera heavily implies the love affair steadily throughout. Plus, the guy named his spaceship after her. So, the love story surprising worked for me. Additionally, although the lunar surface is all nonsense with an atmosphere, gold and whatnot, the rocketry and the weightlessness in space is scientifically realistic. Given that Hermann Oberth was a consultant on the production, that's not surprising. Later realistic space films have benefited from similar assistance. The Soviet "Cosmic Voyage" (1936), for instance, received the help of another father of rocketry in Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
Another thing I love about Lang is that he clearly understood the self-reflexive visual potential of cinema. Of all the moonshot pictures I've seen before Apollo 11 actually achieved it--"A Trip to the Moon" (1902), "Cosmic Voyage," "Destination Moon" (1950), "Countdown" (1968)--only this one thought to bring a motion-picture camera to the lunar surface. Only Lang and the makers of this film had the forethought to near the cinematic competence of NASA. Besides, much of the point of going to the Moon is lost if you don't record it. I also appreciate the newsreel film-within-the-film scene and the comic-books angle that the kid brings. Outer space may exist in a vacuum, but film doesn't.