Sovjet era scifi has long been a frustrating fascination for me. Oftentimes the ideas they want to explore are more interesting than the western cokiecutter outings. Yet their technical limitations and quest for pleasing heads of state tends to neuter what could be a great film.
In many ways. This film is both. For its time and place my jaw dropped multiple times by the sheer playfulness in execution, the visuals are surprisingly grand, the editing snappy, and there are some very fun ideas... In a film that in the end is almost forced into an allegory about the dangers posed to environments by greed and unchecked capitalism.
The editing and shot choice is somewhere between 60s era new wave and even modern day Hideaki Anno (sorry about the random anime reference, but man, it felt like his style) with jow haphazardly it cuts out fat in transportation and mastering the blocking of characters on the wide sovscope screen (tech specs tell me it's 35mm negative. But it sure feels like 65mm). The imaginitative designs feels like a Moebius Space Opera. Say what you want about sovjet era sci fi... But it sure looks like they had fun making this one.
So, the story itself is probably the weakest point. For large chunks it flirts a bit much with the edge of aimless meandering. I wasnever really bored, but I did wonder at times what the goal was, why were we watching these scenes?
To be perfectly honest, I decided to watch this film, I found it by random chance and put it on my youtube playlist for movies people have uploaded. The only real reason for me to embark on its trip tonight was because half the title happens to be Ad Astra, the same as a coming Hollywood film, and I got curious wether this had any relation to it. It now seems not.
But I am very happy to have tried it out. It reignited a need for me to continue to seek out these forgotten space operas. Even if this one had a few pacing niggles.
Oh, and the youtube upload I watched seem to have english burned in dubtitles, because there was a few places noone talked but dialog kept being shown on screen. I could follow the story alright anyway.
In many ways. This film is both. For its time and place my jaw dropped multiple times by the sheer playfulness in execution, the visuals are surprisingly grand, the editing snappy, and there are some very fun ideas... In a film that in the end is almost forced into an allegory about the dangers posed to environments by greed and unchecked capitalism.
The editing and shot choice is somewhere between 60s era new wave and even modern day Hideaki Anno (sorry about the random anime reference, but man, it felt like his style) with jow haphazardly it cuts out fat in transportation and mastering the blocking of characters on the wide sovscope screen (tech specs tell me it's 35mm negative. But it sure feels like 65mm). The imaginitative designs feels like a Moebius Space Opera. Say what you want about sovjet era sci fi... But it sure looks like they had fun making this one.
So, the story itself is probably the weakest point. For large chunks it flirts a bit much with the edge of aimless meandering. I wasnever really bored, but I did wonder at times what the goal was, why were we watching these scenes?
To be perfectly honest, I decided to watch this film, I found it by random chance and put it on my youtube playlist for movies people have uploaded. The only real reason for me to embark on its trip tonight was because half the title happens to be Ad Astra, the same as a coming Hollywood film, and I got curious wether this had any relation to it. It now seems not.
But I am very happy to have tried it out. It reignited a need for me to continue to seek out these forgotten space operas. Even if this one had a few pacing niggles.
Oh, and the youtube upload I watched seem to have english burned in dubtitles, because there was a few places noone talked but dialog kept being shown on screen. I could follow the story alright anyway.