Pavel Klushantsev

It would’ve been an outrage if DV had passed an entire week of moon-themed films without mentioning Pavel Klushantsev. But, as the saying goes, we saved the best for last.

Klushantsev is a Russian film director whose work may not be known by everyone, unlike the films which copied from him. Planeta Bur (1962) was used in no less than two American films (Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet made in 1965 and 1968′s Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women) and some have noticed the series of similaries between Klushantsev’s Road to the Stars and a little known movie called 2001 – A Space Odyssey.

Klushantsev started by making very realistic films, but Road to the Stars (Doroga K Zvezdam) changed the man’s career. Both the US and Russia were experimenting with space travel in the fifties. Klushantsev took that fact and started dreaming about what life in space could look life. Fact and fiction mingled into 1958′s Road to the Stars, his visionary masterpiece. In fact, the scene where the cosmonauts wave goodbye before taking off looks identical to the first Soviet space departures. Clearly the Russians liked the film so much life started to imitate art.

Road to the Stars may have been a fictionalised documentary, Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms) was Klushantsev’s only fiction movie. In this film the cosmonauts land on the planet Venus, where the crew (and robot) find lots of wonders and monsters.
The original release of Planeta Bur was slightly cut: there’s a scene where the female cosmonaut sheds a tear when she fears some of the crew have died. This overt display of emotion was considered unruly and had to be cut. Luckily later released did include this short scene.

The United States proved themselves less feminist with their copies. In Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet the female astronaut is reduced to the good woman who looks good, cooks for the crew, is easily scared and in full adoration of the brave men who accompany her. Three years later things didn’t improve much: Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women reworked the movie just a little bit. Now Venus was inhabited by women in bikini (including Mamie van Doren).
The US may have beaten the Russians to the Moon, but at least the Russians had figured out in the 60s that women were more than t&a.

But let us not digress… after Planeta Bur Klushantsev returned to his more factual style. The sci-fi parts and overt display of emotions had made him, the very renowned director, fall out of grace with the government.
In 1965 Klushantsev released Luna, a documentary on the Moon. It would be his penultimate film. His final film, in 1968, would reveal its topic through the title: Mars.

Road to the Stars profited from a wonderful coincidence: just before the film was released, the Russians managed to send a rocket into space. But it wasn’t just the Sputnik that made Klushantsev’s films so popular. The director was incredibly creative and managed to create realistic special effects. (Planeta Bur includes an underwater scene that was shot in a studio with a tiny aquarium in between the actors.)
The Americans were introduced to Road to the Stars thanks to legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite, who in a documentary on the race to space, showed fifteen minutes of footage from Klushantsev’s film to show how the Russians were imagining space. In total, the fictionalised documentary were sold to 20 countries.

I’ll leave you now with a couple of links, for those who’d like to know more about Klushantsev.
- The article Road to the Stars looks at the director’s imagination and compares the film to 2001 – A Space Odyssey.
- There’s an excellent documentary on the director. It’s called The Star Dreamer.
- Xploited Cinema still sells the dvd release of Planeta Bur.
- On YouTube csnc82 has combined 10 minutes of Luna with some music. (Remember, that’s only a fifth of the actual documentary!)

And finally, here’s more work from csnc82. He (or she) has set clips from Road to the Stars to the music of Kraftwerk. It’s not ideal (especially not since some of the footage is shown in fast forward), but at least it allows you to enjoy the director’s visual flair.

Cat-Women of the Moon

Lunar Week is almost over (tomorrow’s the last Lunar article, the Avenue’s next update will be on Tuesday), but today we take a look at one of the movies from the banner above. The third picture is a still from Cat-Women of the Moon, a complete schlockfest made in 1953. As an added bonus, it’s one of those 3D movies. Which meant the silliness of the film went great along with the silly glasses you had to wear to watch the film.

Arthur Hilton was responsible for directing “the most startling picture of the century” (according to Cat-Women‘s own trailer), a group of space explorers ends up on a planet without men. Handy, as most of the explorers are men. There’s a bit of a twist as there’s also a female on board in this film and that she’s telepathically controlled by the Cat-Women (played by the Hollywood Cover Girls).

This film should be watched by anyone who’s afraid of spiders. The one used in this film is so fake literally noone will be scared by it.

P.S. Apologies for the fact the wide trailer obscures some of my links. Tomorrow the article drops a bit and all the links will be crystal clear again.

Curse of the Werewolf

If there’s one earthly creature that should also get a mention during this lunar week, it’s the werewolf. After all, no other living earthling is affected more by the Moon. Because of this special week, I wanted to watch a werewolf movie I hadn’t seen. It may sound shocking to some, but that was Curse of the Werewolf, Hammer’s entry in the werewolf saga.

The chance to play a werewolf went to Oliver Reed, whose acting skills were only matched by his drinking problem. Normally we wouldn’t have brought that up, but ironically the first job Reed gets in this movie is in a brewery.

By this time, Leon (Reed) is a grown man and you’re already half an hour into the film. For those wanting to seek a distrought werewolf feasting on victims, please go elsewhere (we recommend Paul Naschy‘s films). Curse of the Werewolf plans to tell a story and so it begins with a long historical look back. The film opens with a wandering beggar who wants some food, drink or money. He’s sent to a castle where a wedding is taken place. There the man is deeply humiliated and so the story begins… it’ll take quite a while before Reed will devour his first victim.

Or doesn’t he? The film tries to leave you guessing as to whether Reed is a werewolf or not: as a young boy, it isn’t quite clear whether the sheep were butchered by young Leon or a dog. (Narcoleptic fits could explain the bullet in Leon’s leg.) In a way, that’s odd: every poster of the film portrays Reed as a werewolf, so you’d be foolish to think otherwise.
It does work for the other characters in the film, though: Reed could stay unnoticed thanks to people believing in other explanations.

Weirdly enough, there’s also a while Leon doesn’t change into a werewolf and even this is explained. This makes it all the odder that, towards the climax of the film, this is abruptly forgotten and it’s off to a long chase scene with Reed on many rooftops.

One of the reasons this film wasn’t on my A-list is because I’ve always had problems with Reed’s make-up. To me, it’s on the same level as the lesser convincing disguises of Paul Naschy. During the credits, Reed’s face even reminded me of Jaani Duschman, the Bollywood werewolf classic. And that isn’t a compliment.
During the opening credits we see Reed crying. This is another thing that doesn’t get much attention during the film: surely the thought of becoming a werewolf every month and being unable to change this must be excruciating. This is something that the werewolf movies starring Lon Chaney Jr. are much better at: Chaney’s werewolf is a much more tormented character.

All in all there’s too much talent present present (the director is Hammer veteran Terence Fisher) to turn this into a turkey, but I found it one of the lesser fulfilling Hammer movies. I loved that they were trying to give the character some depth by opening with a large family history, but sadly that’s what this film missed: depth.

6/10

Radar Men From The Moon

Today we pay ‘tribute’ to Radar Men from the Moon, a twelve chapter long serial from 1952. This Republic Pictures exercise in silliness was the first Commando Cody serial. George Wallace played Cody, the director was Fred C. Brannon and the screenplay was written by Ronald Davidson. Brannon and Davidson’s filmographies mainly exist out of serials.

In an effort to keep the budget low, a lot of scenes are lifted from another series, King of the Rocket Men (1949) – where the suit belonged to Rocket Man. In fact, the budget was so low Wallace had to do his own stunts and during one of the fight scenes he broke his nose.

Commando Cody, a civilian researcher, has a rocket-powered flying suit and a rocket ship. He’ll need them as the U.S. are under attack. Someone is wiping out military bases and industrial complexes. Cody finds out the culprit is Retik, the evil dictator of the Moon. Retik wants to conquer Earth and Cody will try his best to keep that from happening.

It’s hard to take Radar Men from the Moon serious, from the campy suits to the special effects (Cody’s clearly lifting off thanks to a trampoline).

The twelve chapters are each just over 13 minutes long, with the exception of the first chapter (which lasted 20 minutes). In 1966 Republic Pictures recut the serial to a movie (100 min), entitled Retik the Moon Menace.

You can watch the episodes on YouTube (here’s the link to chapter 1), but for now we’ll leave you with the serial’s trailer.

Voyage dans la lune

As you may have noticed by now, this week (and this week only) Avenue Kurtodrome will have an update every day. This is because it’s Lunar Week at Delirium Vault.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (or A Trip To The Moon) is a movie of which the importance shouldn’t be underestimated. In the late 19th century the Lumière brothers frightened their audience by showing a train entering a station. The camera had been placed on the platform and the scared viewers imagined the train would run them over. This was the moment cinema was said to be invented, the fact that audiences were forgetten that what they were watching was only a movie.

For a couple of years cinema was merely that: either an extra eye observing what was happening (e.g. workmen leaving a factory) or a simple bit of trickery. Magician Georges Méliès saw the possibilities of this new invention and used a stop motion technique to perform magic on screen.

1902′s Voyage Dans La Lune was one big step forward: cinema had begun changing itself to what it is nowadays. Stories told by moving pictures. In 1903 The Great Train Robbery did an extraordinary thing: in the final scene a robber shoots a gun towards the screen. The fourth wall (the invisible wall between the characters and us) was broken.
But it couldn’t compare to what Méliès had done before. Not only did he take cinema away from the stories that were normally told (day-to-day activities or historical tales) by venturing into the world of science fiction, what he did was so stunning it’s still remembered today. Hundred years later people still know about the spacecraft landing into the moon’s eye as if it were some cake. It’s an iconic image and that’s what cinema is all about: telling tales in a visually pleasing manner that people won’t forget them.

It must be stated that Méliès intended his cinema as part of his illusionist performances. That is why there isn’t text in his movies. In 1902 it was common that someone would narrate the film as it went along. That is why the version below is narrated by Méliès’s granddaughter in the old fashion. It’s in French though. Underneath you’ll find links to other versions.

The story doesn’t really need explanation, but for the laziest amongst you: at an academic rally a professor tells everyone of his plans to go to the moon. There are some heavy protests, but he manages to get five people to accompany him. The rocket is prepared and launched. On the moon they meet some weird and frightening creatures and they barely make it back home.

Here’s a version without narration (link) and here, by way of novelty, a version of the film with music from Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts: link)

Rocketship X-M vs. Destination Moon

1969 wasn’t the only time there was a race for space. A similar thing happened in 1950 when (not two countries but) two movies battled it out to be the first post-war space movie. Destination Moon had the intention of being the first movie, but the special effects and high production value caused the release to be delayed. So another company saw this gigantic opportunity and finished a movie within 18 days. Rocketship X-M was the name of the feature and the director was Kurt Neumann (who’d later direct Kronos and The Fly).

Oddly enough, the crew in this film doesn’t land on the Moon. Due to technical difficulties, they end up on Mars. There they find the remains of a civilized culture. Remains… because a nuclear war had ended life on Mars.
So, unlike Destination Moon, this film wasn’t as much a space exploration film as an anti-nuclear film.

Because the production was a rush job, the film doesn’t always look completed. Sci-fi producer Wade Williams found this such a shame he shot some additional scenes in the 70s, after obtaining the rights of the film. Scenes that were omitted due to time pressure but were essential establishment shots (incl. the landing of the spacecraft). Williams and his crew made sure the re-shot scenes looked identical to the original film and recreated the spacecraft and costumes with great effort.

You can watch or download the film on the archive.org site. Here‘s the link.

The director of that other contender, Destination Moon, was George Pal (War of the Worlds). The decision to spend some extra time on their special effects paid off: the film won an Academy Award for Special Effects. And, unlike Rocketship X-M, this film ended up where it wanted to land: on the Moon.

It was 1950 and the US started to prepare for space adventures which wouldn’t take place on the silver screen. Luckily for Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, their story seemed closer to that of Destination Moon and they didn’t end up landing on Mars.

P.S. Destination Moon can be watched entirely on YouTube. The link is here.

Opération Lune (Dark Side of the Moon)

Today we kick off DV’s Lunar Week. This week we’ll be watching the sky and go for movies that were inspired by that disc in the sky. Because this week – you may have heard about this – it’s 40 years since the first men walked on the moon.

Or did they? Even in 2009 some voices still say the landing on the moon was a fake. That the entire hoax was filmed in a Hollywood studio. From Armstrong’s first words (surely no man in his right mind would say “One small step for man…”) to the waving flag (flags can’t wave on the moon), to some it’s crystal clear evidence we never went to the moon.

In 2002 a documentary maker Willem Karel discovered the shocking truth behind it all. The moon footage we’ve seen it so many times now is indeed faked. Moreover, director Stanley Kubrick had something to do with it.

Kubrick is of course the director of the movie 2001 – A Space Odyssey. He was the verge of shooting the final scenes of his movie when NASA were preparing for their own gigantic space odyssey. President Nixon and a couple of advisors had come to the conclusion that there was one gigantic problem with the trip to the Moon. Without evidence people may not believe it had happened. So, in order to be able to silence everyone, they made sure there would be evidence. A delegation was sent to Kubrick and asked the director if his film studio could be used for the weekend, so that they would shoot a fake moon landing there. Kubrick was chosen because he had been given the rare opportunity to shoot in the Pentagon for his film Dr. Strangelove – or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb and everyone hoped Kubrick would return the favour. The director was a bit reluctant but gave in after a while. As a thanks for his silence the director would get another wonderful opportunity: when shooting Barry Lyndon, Kubrick was able to borrow a NASA Zeiss lens, the only sort of lens strong enough to film his movie on a set without artificial lights (the only light on set came from candles).

Karel discovered this fact when he was preparing a documentary on Kubrick. While browsing the director’s archives, he found a Top Secret map which put Karel on the path to his discoveries. The astronauts had gone to the Moon but the footage couldn’t be used and so, the NASA had shown the fake footage instead. Thanks to the sealed lips of everyone involved (from President Nixon and Assistant to the President Donald Rumsfeld to Kubrick and the small camera crew), the American government could keep this a secret. Kubrick and the government never revealed it, but the camera crew never even got the chance. The small group of people involved in the hoax found their ‘accidental’ death shortly after the real moon landing.

After a long while Karel managed to dig up the truth. The documentary maker interviewed several witnesses, including Kubrick’s widow, Donald Rumsfeld, former White House secretary Eve Kendall and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Step by step the truth was revealed, more than 30 years after Armstrong and Aldrin had set foot on the moon. Not every witness was willing to speak about the events of 1969, but it helped Karel to finish his puzzle.

How did the American government manage to pull this off? Well, they didn’t. Opération Lune (English title: Dark Side of the Moon) is a fake documentary. Willem Karel has made several real documentaries, but here he (and producing tv channel ARTE) pulled your leg. Opération Lune had only one goal: to test how gullible viewers are. Just because it’s presented as a truth, lots of people will believe it. To make Opération Lune as credible as possible, Karel mixed truth and fiction. He used genuine footage and mixed it with scenes he directed. Kubrick’s widow was in on the hoax: she would gladly help Karel out, stating Kubrick himself would’ve loved the idea too (she has often complained people never noticed Kubrick’s sense of humour). Some roles (like the former secretary) were fictional and were played by actors. The footage with people like Donald Rumsfeld was taken out of context from other interviews. If you stick to the film until the end credits, you’ll see how they were asked for their permission.
And even then Opération Lune is incredibly subtle: it doesn’t blatantly confess it’s a hoax, it just shows you people like Rumsfeld okaying the project and one of the actors showing and talking about the film’s script. A final clue: the credits show some people as themselves and some with the mention of the name of their characters. Characters that always had something to do with cinema: Eve Kendall and George Kaplan are names from North by Northwest, Jack Torrance is the main character from The Shining etc. etc.

Some parts of the documentary are so wacky it’s amazing people saw and believed it. Weirdly enough it works: once people believe what they see is real they’ll believe extra bits of information of the hoax, no matter how ludicrous they are. Contrary to what some believe, this film never says the moon landing was a hoax: it said the footage we saw was faked because the real footage couldn’t be used.
People with media training may be able to see it’s a hoax by the way some of the interviews are presented, but it cannot be denied that Opération Lune is one of the cleverest hoax documentaries out there and a genuine lesson that checking up on stories is a good idea.

Don’t always believe what you read, kids. Not even here on DV!

P.S. The slightly shorter English version is available on Google Video. Here‘s the link.