User Reviews

The new Kino DVD release of 'Woman In The Moon' is a great addition to anyone's Fritz Lang collection. Once again, the new music composed for the film adds tremendously to the experience. I was astounded by how ahead of its time this movie was in terms of its science, and it was no surprise to read that Ufa had a team of science consultants working with Lang to supply realistic details. The use of the rotation of the Earth to provide extra impetus to the rocket, the way the booster rockets were discarded as the spaceship moved further out of the Earth's atmosphere - having grown up watching real moon launches in the 60s, it was astonishing to see the actuality echoed by fiction decades earlier. There was clearly a lot of attention to detail; they even figured out ways of conveying weightlessness in space, which were pretty advanced for the time. The special effect of trying to pour a bottle of wine without gravity was both funny and impressive. The movie is not one of Lang's great masterpieces, and I agree with other comments that point out that it tends to slow down in places. Lang always did like making long, long movies, and when he settled down to tell a story, he could really take his time getting everything perfect. When this involves people just sitting or standing in a room talking, it can get a little tiresome - in one scene, Helius is trying to get through on the phone to his partner Windegger, and it takes so long he has time to snip to pieces a big bouquet of flowers on the table in front of him. I swear, it seems to be happening in real time; if there were something exciting happening in the meantime somewhere else it might have passed more quickly, but we just keep cutting between a scene of a man impatiently holding a phone to his ear and snipping at flowers, and a scene of people sitting at a dinner table listening to a speech. Not even Lang can make this gripping, though I think he was defiantly determined to try. On the other hand, there are places where it works well. The long buildup to the rocket launch is terrific - I would have enjoyed it if it were even longer. The hangar in the darkening scene, lit with jumpy spotlights as the moon begins to rise, the slow, smooth monumental sliding of that massive machinery as the rocket glides forward to its launch position, dwarfing the human beings walking alongside it, and all the beautiful changes of camera angle to draw in the viewer, are very moving. I can see why the Nazis liked Lang and wanted to get their claws into him; if they could have harnessed him to make THEIR kind of movies, he'd have been a real prize for them, another Riefenstahl. 'Woman In The Moon' wasn't a hit at the time, mainly because Lang (as usual) wouldn't listen to the studio heads who wanted some concessions to the coming of sound technology, so it was a dinosaur silent movie when the public was engrossed with something new. But it is definitely worth watching, and its strong points are worth sitting through some tedious slow patches to enjoy.

"Frau im mond" is undoubtedly one of the first and most important Sci-Fi movies ever made. Directed by Austrian director Fritz Lang best known for his masterpieces "M" and "Metropolis", it's a story of a half-mad greedy scientist obsessed with the idea of getting gold from the moon and a moon expedition that follows, there is also a love story that goes along. The look of the film is quite impressive, considered that it was made in 1929. Hitler later banned it, because the spaceship featured there was nearly identical to V-2s that were constructed in secrecy by the Third Reich at the time. An early Sci-Fi classic, a must see for any serious Sci-Fi fan. 8/10

One of the coolest things for any silent film buff is to discover a film that they hadn't heard of or known too much about. That's the case with Fritz Lang's restored "Woman in the Moon", in the 2004 KINO DVD release, in which the print quality is excellent and a new piano/synthesizer score has been added. As has been cited by many others here, the pacing of much of the picture is slow and the acting is occasionally melodramatic, but as was occurring with most movies in the latter days of the silents, the acting techniques were moving form the broad stage performances of early film to more controlled and realistic portrayals and most of the actors were of the latter group. In addition to the surprisingly realistic portrayal of many aspects of what would become space flight, it is interesting that the space (science fiction) aspect is not the focus of the movie. The movie deals primarily with six characters and the tensions caused by greed, love, scientific curiosity and boyish hero worship. The fact that they are making a trip to the moon to verify a theory that gold might be mined there is just the vehicle of the story. And the story itself is pretty decent, especially if you have the patience to let the movie tell it. And even though I am a fairly jaded film buff, I found myself genuinely startled and surprised at least twice by plot turns.

I love it when that happens.

Be patient. Its 169 minutes, but I think it is worth it.

Frau im Mond may appear scientifically outlandish to the modern viewer, and the high-style expressionistic acting of its actors overdone, but nevertheless the film should be recognized as a landmark which impacted world history. The UFA studio commissioned a then small and marginal band of German amateur rocket aficionados centered around Hermann Oberth to work as technical consultants to the film's designers, and UFA even commissioned them to build a rocket to be fired at the film's premier in Berlin. The rocket wasn't completed in time, but the laboratory furnished by UFA, not to mention the heady excitement of a brush with the highest level of cinema, and the salutory infusion of unexpected cash, together set some of these young rocketeers on their life paths. These included Willy Ley, and a young Prussian aristocrat engineer named Wehrner von Braun.

When the Nazis came to power, Fritz Lang parted with his wife and partner Thea von Harbou and came to Hollywood. The production models of the liquid-fired rockets from Frau im Mond were so advanced that in 1936 the Gestapo seized them as state secrets. Werhner von Braun went on to develop the brilliant Nazi terror weapon known as the V-2. Post-war, the V-2 and its German designers begat both the American and Soviet space programs. All subsequent space history was profoundly influenced by these developments. Frau im Mond maintains its impact to the present day. For just one example-- purely as a dramatic device to build tension before the rocket's lift-off to the Moon, Fritz Lang introduced title cards counting down from ten to one. The "countdown",as it became known, was so successful that NASA and everybody else has been doing it ever since.

Let's face it – 'Woman in the Moon' is hardly one of the great Fritz Lang's best efforts: far, far too long, badly paced, ludicrously over-melodramatic and just plain silly. Nevertheless, it contains prescient details in regards to space travel and (as should be expected) looks absolutely fabulous. Lang even made claims that this was the first film to feature a rocket launch countdown and who are we to question him? One thing you can be certain of is that going to the moon would never again look so stylish. Even though this is the tail end of Lang's classic silent period, those who love films like 'Dr. Mabuse' and 'Spies' will still find much to enjoy here.

As Martin Sheen said in the fine documentary "Space," this movie deals seriously with almost every aspect of a flight to the moon. It makes some dreadful errors that, even in 1929, could and should have been avoided (an atmosphere on the moon, for example). But, it nevertheless treats the subject and the viewer with respect. When I saw this movie at a New York revival house, a live pianist provided the silent film's accompaniment. I encourage you to see it this way, as that somehow made it even easier to put myself in the place of an early 20'th century filmgoer, and see this fine movie for what it was. The story is light, but the beckoning mystery of outer space is captured in a way that will make you feel you know something more than you used to about the people who made, and first saw, these images. And, when you do, remember that real space flight was 30 _years_ away. (Later, you might ponder that the first lunar landing is now _more_ than 30 years ago, but do that after you enjoy this sweet look at, as Fred Pohl put it in another, related, context, "the way the future was.")

One extra bit of advice: Keep your ears open at the moment of launch. All of the effects in this movie are, naturally, simple and gray-haired. Nevertheless, when the rocket actually took off, my audience gave an audible reaction because, I think, Lang decided to emphasize an aspect of what a rocket is, and what it can do, that virtually all later film-makers have decided to ignore. They should see this movie, and learn a little something.

Silent films have always intrigued me, not all of them have held up but even then it is not to not appreciate what they tried to do. Those that do hold up though manage to be good and more films, and the best remarkable for their time and influential in cinema and their genres. Also like to love a lot of Fritz Lang's work, his best and most influential being 'Metropolis' and 'M' and 'You Only Live Once' and 'Scarlet Street' are also fabulous films.

'The Woman in the Moon' is not one of the best silent films. It is not one of Lang's best. And it is not one of the best of its genre. Other films at the time in all three respects have aged better by today's standards and in no way is that meant to sound ignorant or disrespectful, just my thoughts. 'The Woman in the Moon' is though very interesting if lesser Lang, with a number of standout things that still impress. In no way is it a bad film and really do appreciate the amount of effort that went into it.

It is a fairly easy film to criticise. It does have quite severe pacing problems, the overstretching of the plot really making the film drag badly. What would have made things better was if the film was much shorter as it does feel at least half an hour too long.

What particularly made 'The Woman in the Moon' feel like that was the romance, which is really not all that interesting, is pretty simplistic and is quite melodramatic. Further disadvantaged by being over-acted to the heavens by the actors. The professor character is also on the histrionic side.

Conversely, 'The Woman in the Moon' is hugely impressive visually still. There is a lot of atmospheric and very stylish camera work and the design and effects still look imaginative and like a lot of creativity went into making them. The take-off especially is pretty jaw-dropping in this aspect. Lang's direction shows enough flashes of brilliance, with some inspired sinister touches. The later interpolated music score is haunting and moves things along with a good sense of pace and atmosphere.

Although narratively the story is inconsistent, there are fine moments with the more scientific space-oriented element to it actually being quite intriguing and leaving one in awe. The build up to the take-off has tension, and, on top of being the most visually inspired the film gets, the take-off itself evokes thrills and jaws will likely drop looking at how good it still looks and how creatively it's handled.

On the whole, interesting but uneven and lesser Lang. 6/10

This was Fritz Lang's last silent film. It is a science fiction adventure in which a scientist, Professor Georg Manfeldt, had theorized that there were large supplies of gold on the moon. He was ridiculed by his peers and disgraced because of this. However, a wealthy industrialist believes Manfeldt's theory and has been building a rocket to travel to the moon. when a group of wealthy men who control the world's gold supply feel threatened by the possibility the theory may be correct, they threaten to destroy the rocket unless one of their agents, Turner, is allowed to go on the expedition too. Apparently Lang's film got so much right about space travel that the Germans seized the models used in the film as state secrets when they started their own rocket-building program. This film runs 169 minutes and is quite slow in places. It has some very interesting and thrilling scenes, but it is probably one of the weaker of Lang's films that I have seen.

It's about 40 years since the last manned flight left the moon, and 40 years before that "Woman in the Moon" hit the silver screen. So we can admire the prescience of Willy and Werner in their multi-stage rocket and their depiction of zero gravity. But I struggled with the most non-ergometric controls ever engineered, the atmosphere of the moon, the presence of bubbling springs of water, and a divining rod(!?) used to find gold. The film also gets into trouble with its many and varied subplots—the two-men-in-love-with-the-same-woman subplot, the speculators-cornering-the-gold-market subplot, the evil-spy-network subplot, the cute-kid-stowaway subplot… It makes for a long film (my DVD comes in at 149 minutes) and a not very interesting one. The expressionist acting style wears after a while, and the slow-moving plot doesn't help matters. I loved the rocket launch (done by Oskar Fischenger, whose short animation films you should check out), and am able to put up with a fair amount of hokum in the name of entertainment. But this isn't one of Lang's best efforts.

The cinema of Weimar Germany, more fantastical, surreal and purely visual than its Hollywood counterpart, often resembles not reality but the world of dreams – and nightmares. And this is a world not totally removed from our own experiences, because we all of us dream.

Frau im Mond was adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Thea von Harbou from her own novel. It has at its core the spirit if not the accuracy of scientific endeavour, and yet it is essentially, like most of von Harbou's work, a story of epic, rip-roaring adventure. Rich with subplot, which adds to rather than detracts from the awe-inspiring voyage, of all her stories it is probably second only to Metropolis for its sheer imaginative splendour and romantic sweep. Many of its devices found their way into Tintin's moon adventure twenty-five years later, author Herge even naming one of the characters Wolff as a possible tribute to Wolf Helius.

Such a story is in constant danger of going off the rails of credibility, and as such it requires a director of a certain boldness in approach. Fritz Lang, von Harbou's husband at the time, is known for his stark visual style which many would associate with the expressionist excess of film noir, a genre to which Lang would indeed make several notable contributions in later years. And yet his manner, unbridled as it was in Germany where he was allowed to work more closely with his creative team, is more one of bizarre fantasy and nightmarish exaggeration than of grim realism. It is this take on things that brings Frau in Mond into the world of acceptability. Von Harbou creates a great character in the impoverished yet brilliant Professor Manfeldt. Lang brings Manfeldt's world to life with the bleak angular depiction of his home. In such a place it is normal for actors to grimace and gesticulate wide-eyed into the camera.

And herein lies the important second dimension to Lang's technique. Point-of-view shots were by now a fairly routine trick in Hollywood, but Lang consistently breaks that fourth wall and inserts the audience somewhat aggressively into the film's world, often having the camera take the position of alternate positions of two characters facing each other. Also notice how each of the sets of Frau im Mond is an enclosed space, not a backless facade as we would get on a soundstage. By giving us 360-degree coverage of a room, Lang gives us the impression – better I think than any other director – that we have entered the same space as the heroes and villains of the story.

This is how Lang and von Harbou get away with their own bizarre and fantastical ramblings. Fritz Lang's later silent films are exciting, so enthralling, in spite of their long running times, their oddball imagery and melodramatic plot lines. The finest work of Lang and von Harbou allows us to become part of their dream world.

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.

I saw the original premiere presentation director's cut of this movie in January of 2003, with excellent musical accompaniment by Dennis James at the Paramount theater. Perfect, restored print, a movie that I have always wanted to see (since it was mentioned in Carlos Clarens "Horror Movies" first published in 1967). HOWEVER... The tendency toward "original, premiere presntation" director's cut reached new heights of lunacy (pun intended) with this movie. It ran more than three hours and 40 minutes! According to it's IMDB entry the original version that ran in the US was 95 minutes with longer versions (running time up to 2 and a half hours) running in Europe. At times I felt as if I had been placed in hypersleep in prep for a deep space expedition of my own! The film certainly lived up to advance billing, yet certain things, like the 45-minute opening dinner scene, were obviously way longer than they needed to be. One doesn't need to be a genius to know that after the premiere, Fritz Lang probably cut the dinner scene to about three minutes, removed whole sections, and generally tightened up an otherwise improbable story. For example, the moon is portrayed as a rather pleasant (if poorly stocked with resources for survival) beach resort. Everyone runs around in sweaters and jodhpurs, and true love seems destined to survive the wait for a return rescue rocket. Other stuff was great: the launch pad, countdown and the experience of the G forces on blastoff were, well the archetypal events for all the space operas to follow. A good movie, but probably seen to much better effect on video or in the shorter release version (if either ever turns up).

The first half of this film; the set-up of the flight, the introduction to the main characters, a love triangle, and an international conspiracy; is frankly boring. But once the flight begins, action tenses up and things get interesting.

For 1929, the science is sometimes prescient-- a three stage rocket, a vertical assembly building, and a monstrous rolling gantry crawler-- are suggestive of the Apollo program. Other times the science is more romantic, using dowsing rods and an egg-shaped moon. The eggy moon allows a far-side with a breathable atmosphere. But an eggy moon really isn't less scientific than faster than light travel, which is a staple of modern space flight science fiction. FTL travel is simply a mechanism whereby a cast of characters can visit multiple star systems; the eggy moon allows the visit to a breathable world in the context of a 1930s Europe.

This movie understandably has fairly primitive special effects. One major effect, a rotating barrel decorated as the moon, is charming.

The ending is definitely touching. In the sub-genre of science fiction/space flight, this is an important and interesting film and well worth suffering through the first half.

'Woman in the Moon' is considered to be first serious science-fiction movie, and it is first movie that deal space travel such an elaborate way. This film also depicted many things first time on the silver screen - like rocket launching pad, start countdown, a rocket with two stages and zero gravity. If you put it this way - how far the first real space travel was, the film was quite accurate, or one can even say - prophetic. 'Woman in the Moon' is not as big on scale and not as filled with special effects as 'Metropolis' it's nonetheless worthy early sci-fi film that is must see for every genre fan. The first half might be even boring to some, as it just introduces the characters and remind chamber comedy rather than science-fiction, but after the first hour is past, we are finally taken into special effects filled space extravaganza.

With 'Metropolis' and 'Woman in the Moon' Fritz Lang was without a doubt the king of science-fiction movies of his era.

P.S. I guess Viggo Mortensen knows something about time travel - there are some striking similarities between him and Fritz Rasp, especially when he is with glasses and mustache.

Considering its time and conditions, it is very courageous and well designed and often considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films. Though some things are out of facts of today it is really an unforgettable sample and pioneer of space films in the history of cinema.

It had to be more excited than Star Wars in the beginning of '20s. The types chosen are quite interesting and though it's a silent movie, the explanations are quite satisfactory enabling the movie comprehensible. For the lovers of the art of cinema, it is a film absolutely to bee seen and to be added into their archive.

Professor Georg Manfeldt proposes gold to be found in the mountains of the moon and he's met with derision. He is kicked out of the scientific community and becomes a hermit. Mr. Helius is an entrepreneur obsessed with space travel and finds a fellow dreamer in Manfeldt. His assistants Windegger and Friede announces their engagement although Manfeldt is secretly in love with Friede. He is blackmailed by an evil gang and Turner forces his way onto the team. The rocket crew consists of Windegger, Friede, Manfeldt, Turner, and stowaway boy Gustav.

It takes way too long to get to the moon. The full length version is over three hours. Maybe a tighter cut would be more compelling. The technical predictive value of the movie is impressive. Director Fritz Lang is letting the technical take over the story telling. The problem is that the technical aspect is not the most artistic unlike Metropolis. The art of the future in this is not as awe inspiring. Also, the human story isn't as epic. It is the simplest of love triangles and I don't like the criminals in this. I don't care for their motivation. Overall, there is good technical value but the length is a problem.

I first heard of Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) as a child reading about it in the Newsround Book of Space. In a section of the book about science fiction movies, the film was mentioned accompanied by a photograph of the film. This picture always intrigued and stuck with me - three people and their rocket on the moon; very retro-futuristic looking. I finally saw it many years later and was not disappointed.

Woman In the Moon really does deserve the title of a unique film, the movies feels like 50's science fiction movie, yet was released in 1929. The design of the rocket has that retro-futuristic, egg-shaped 1950's look while the painted moon backdrops look as if they could be in a 50's space fantasy film. Likewise actress Gerda Maurus has a very futuristic, metallic looking hairstyle. Science Fiction wouldn't become a staple genre in cinema for another 21 years and Fritz Lang himself was to create a sci-fi movie in the 1950's, which unfortunately never came to be. The movie also mixes together other time periods. Portions of the movie feel reminiscent of a Jules Verne story with that 19th century sci-fi aesthetic such as the apartment of Professor Mannfeldt with its vintage 19th century furniture, chairs and telescope.

Woman In the moon combines genres with a mix of espionage, melodrama, comic book sci-fi and even a helping of comedy thrown into the mix. Other moments feel like a documentary with scenes of scientists and diagrams explaining things; I love that stuff. Woman in the Moon was the first time ever (film or otherwise) in which space travel was depicted through the use of a multistage liquid fuel rocket; 40 years before man first landed on the moon. Considering this it's a shock that this movie isn't more widely known, especially in compassion to Lang's previous sci-fi epic Metropolis. Even later Nazi rocket science (and eventual American rocket scientist) Wernher Von Braun acted as an advisor for the film.

The film has its Cartoony moments such as the ever cliché image of close-minded bearded scientists laughing and the insane or seemingly insane person is the one who is right but the message is clear, as Professor Mannfeldt angrily puts it "The progress of the world will not fail due to learned ignoramuses lacking in fantasy whose brains work in inverse proportion to their calcification". The movie's villain, on the other hand, is obviously modeled after everyone's least favourite evil dictator Adolf Hitler; he doesn't have a mustache but has the same parted hairstyle. Lang hated the Nazis before it was cool or before they even came to power.

The only major downside of Woman In the Moon is the run time at 2 hours and 50 minutes which I felt could have been cut down. At the 26 minutes in until 50 minute mark was a section of the film which really tried my patience with its painfully slow setting up in real time but it's largely smooth sailing after that.

The rocket launch is something to behold with the impressive miniatures and the very gradual build up. The rocket interior is in tune with a space fantasy even with its design taking the absence of gravity in space and G-force taken into account. The actors do an effective job of conveying G-force and not coming off as laughable. When on the moon the astronauts do not wear space suits, are able to breathe on the moon and did I mention there is also gold on the moon. I assume the filmmakers intentionally created a film which combined scientific accuracy and fantasy to create a film which has a great sense of adventure. The child stowaway on the rocket represents the schoolboy adventurer in us. The moon as seen here is a fantasy land full of mountains and caverns. Plus I love and I do mean LOVE the film's ending. Such an uplifting moment after we're led to believe the opposite but doesn't come off as contrived.

There are some subtitle issues on the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release with white English text overlaying white German text.

"For the human mind, there is no never - only a not yet."