Cosmic Voyage (1936 film)

Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella

Theatrical poster
Directed by Vasili Zhuravlov
Produced by Boris Shumyatskiy
Written by Aleksandr Filimonov
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Starring Sergei Komarov
Kselniya Moskalenko
Vassili Gaponenko
Nikolai Feoktistov
Vasili Kovrigin
Production
company
Release dates
  • January 1936 (1936-01)
Running time
 70 minutes
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian

Cosmic Voyage or The Space Voyage (Russian: Космический рейс, translit. Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella) is a 1936 Soviet science fiction film produced by Mosfilm.

Plot

In the year 1946, the Soviet space program is undergoing turmoil. Professor Sedikh, who is planning to lead the first manned exploration to the moon, is denounced by his rival Professor Karin as being too old and too mentally unstable for the mission. Professor Sedikh, aided by his assistant Marina and a youth named Andryusha, disregard Prof. Karin’s authority and make a successful landing on the moon. Although a few problems occur at the moon, including the discovery of a damaged oxygen tank and Professor Sedikh’s becoming trapped under a fallen boulder, the expedition is a success and the cosmonauts return to Moscow.

Cast

Production

Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella was initially conceived in 1924 by Russian filmmaker Vasili Zhuravlov, but it was not pursued for production until 1932, when Komsomol (the Communist Union of Youth) recommended the creation of film that would spur an interest in space studies. Zhuravlov consulted with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the noted aeronautical theorist and rocket science engineer, on the screenplay. Tsiolkovsky died shortly after the film was completed.[1]

Two spaceships in the film were named after the Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov. The film’s cosmonauts enter liquid-filled chambers to buffer the impact of takeoff and landing, and they communicate their landing to the Earth by spelling out "CCCP" (the Russian-language acronym for "USSR") with reflective substances spread across the lunar surface.[2]

Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella was shot as a silent film and had only a brief release in early 1936 before being removed from circulation by Soviet censors, who felt that an animated sequence of cosmonauts hopping across the low-gravity lunar surface was antithetical to the spirit of "socialist realism." It was not widely seen again until the 1980s.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Phil Hall (July 9, 2010). "The Bootleg Files: The Space Voyage". Film Threat. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  2. ↑ Glenn Erickson (October 26, 2006). "Kosmicheskiy reys: Fantasticheskaya novella". DVD Talk. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
  3. ↑ David Jeffers (July 25, 2007). "Hijack at the Cosmodrome". Seattle International Film Festival SIFFBlog. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
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