FRAU IM MOND (WOMAN IN THE MOON) (Masters of Cinema) BLU-RAY

This is the second of great silent SF movies made by Fritz Lang and although not as immensely great and universaly known as "Metropolis", it is certainly a very major film! Below, you will find some more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS. PRECISION: this is the review of "Masters of Cinema" restored 163 minutes long version of this film. "Frau im Mond" begins with the great dream of a manned expedition to the Moon shared by two unlikely friends. One of them, professor Georg Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl), is an old scientist, considered by his pairs as a madman or a fraud and living in most abject poverty. The second, Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch), is a gifted engineer and very succesful businessman, owner of a major industrial company. Together they decide to build a giant rocket and go to the Moon, looking for gold which they hope will cover the immense cost of this enterprise. This is described in the very beginning of the film. The performance of Klaus Pohl as an old half-mad scientist is absolutely unique - those first minutes of the film, you really WANT to see them! What happens next? Well, quite a lot indeed, because this is a long film. Some sinister forces will intervene, acting through The Man, a nameless archi-villain played magistrally by actor Fritz Rasp, who with his unique physionomy and great talent steals absolutely every scene he appears in (he also played a quite sinister character in "Metropolis"). As the title clearly suggests, a young woman will also play a considerable role - this is in fact one of the first films in which a woman who is also a serious scientist appears... There will be a love triangle, lots of trouble during the space trip, more trouble on the Moon and a very good, VERY surprising ending. All of this under the curious but stoic regard of a very zen mouse, played by Die Maus Josephine (as stated in the credits)...))) This is a long film, but I didn't feel the time passing. The performance of actors is absolutely brilliant! The unique character of talent needed to act in silent movies gives to this film a charm impossible to find in modern cinema. Passion, hope, love, despair, anger, cruelty, lust, terror, disgust, ecstasy - you name it, they are all here, silently screaming at us from the screen. The plot is not bad at all, especially considering that this film is a pioneering work. Description of space travel is of course deliciously silly, but that also gives this film a very unique savour. This film is also the first one to show the countdown to the launch of a rocket - pretty impressive, considering that this film was made in 1929. The very solemn moment of launching of the rocket is a great and very emotional cinema scene - and it certainly greatly impressed and inspired many young students, who were later to become rocket scientists in German V-1 and V-2 program in Peenemunde, beginning with a certain Werner von Braun, who saw this film, eyes wide-open, at the tender age of 17. In fact, the first V-2 rocket ever launched had the image of "Frau im Mond" painted on it... I loved this film greatly and I am absolutely keeping preciously this DVD. I recommend it with all my heart. Enjoy!

Really enjoyed this old silent movie. Apart from a decent story line, the images and effects depicting a rocket flight to and subsequent landing on the moon must have been some achievement in 1928.

After enjoying Fritz Lang's Metropolis more then I anticipated, I thought to check out his follow up sci-fi epic Frau Im Mond. It is a film that is a lot more interesting than it is enjoyable to watch. Don't take that as a bad thing because it really isn't. What I mean by this is that much like every other epic film from Lang, Frau Im Mond has a serious attention to detail and to squeeze all that detail onto film it was stretched out to a fairly lengthy running time. Through out the film you'll see a short crime drama, an epic space ship missile launch and some dramatic times on the moon. The detail put into the space travel portion of the film is so ahead of its time that I found it genuinely fascinating. From the way they handled the launch itself, strapping down for G-forces, moving around and eating zero gravity to keeping their feet weighed down on the moon. It's something every science fiction buff should see. The story itself starts off like a slow paced crime drama as we see the plans for the rocket, space travel etc. being pinched, only for the original owners to effectively be black mailed into joining these criminals in a space launch. There is gold on the moon you see and these bad guys want it all for themselves. The plot moves on into space, a charming but awkward love triangle develops and the then rounds off with a fairly dramatic ending featuring deception, love and self sacrifice. Over all, the film could do with a little trim to make the first part flow better. But once they start preparing for launch the story picks up and is considerably more enjoyable to watch. Unlike a lot of silent films releases today, I wouldn't consider this film an all time classic like Metropolis, Die Nibelungen or Nosferatu. But it is well made and certainly has its moments. There is only so much appeal for non sci-fi fans and it won't attract anyone who dislikes the genre. But it is still a really well made movie, looks incredibly by today's standards and is worth checking out if space and science fiction is your thing.

One of the first scifi flicks,dated but fun

This is the only Fritz Lang film that I feel entirely happy with. Its depiction of a flight to the moon is both forward-looking and revealing but also quaint in its historic art, and the silent acting is of a very high order with quite a lot of depth in the characters. This film is great fun and perfectly excellent.

LANG'S AND MURNAU'S WORKS SHOULD BE ALL RELEASED IN HOME VIDEO. I DON'T CARE IF THEY'RE IN BLURAY OR DVD FORMAT, BECAUSE THESE WORKS HAVE ALREADY BEEN TEXTBOOK FOR FILM INDUSTRY FOR A LONG TIME, AND THESE FILMS LED AND INSPIRED OLD AND NEW STANDARDS IN FILM HISTORY. GERMAN FILMS BECOME WORLD-RESPECTED BECAUSE OF THEM MAINLY. THEREFORE, IT WON'T BE TOO FAR TO SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

Arrived on time at at a good price. While not Lang's finest hour, it's a looooooong way from unacceptable - familiar themes and some top camerawork.

Amazing for the time brilliant with the nasty thin man from meyropolis as the baddie again

Seltener film der vergangener Zeit

lang a su le faire : une femme dans la lune. beauté du geste d'une femme qui s'envole et court aux cratères. paysages de cartons et de poussières de lune. un fantasque film de fiction dont le silence est encore roi. rare. très bon envoi.

Master video eccezionale! Didascalie originali con sottotitoli inglesi. Il film non ha bisogno del mio elogio . Per me resta un capolavoro, come del resto ogni film diretto da Fritz Lang

Frau Im Mond (La donna nella luna) è uno dei primi film di fantascienza della storia del cinema, diretto dal grande Fritz Lang. E mi pare che basti...

"Frau im Mond" wurde 1928 gedreht und ein Jahr später veröffentlicht und war seit 1919 der 15. Spielfilm von Fritz Lang. Der weitestgehend damals recht erfolgreiche Stummfilmregisseur beendete seine Stummfilmkarriere mit diesem Film und drehte danach seinen ersten Tonfilm "M-Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder". "Frau im Mond" gilt als erster "wissenschaftlicher" SF-Film der Welt, da das Thema "Reise zum Mond mittels Rakete" mit wissenschaftlichen Beratern entstand, die darauf achteten die Verfilmung nach damaligem Wissensstand möglichst realistisch aussehen zu lassen. Leider ignorierte Drehbuchautorin Thea von Harbou ab der Ankunft auf dem Mond jeglichen Realismus zugunsten der Dramaturgie der Story. So war z.B. damals schon bekannt dass die Atmospäre auf dem Mond für Menschen nicht atembar ist, was sie in ihrem Script völlig außer acht liess. Die zweite Hälfte des ansonsten sehr guten Films wirkt deshalb aus heutiger Sicht ziemlich lachhaft. Schade, denn die erste Hälfte des 2 Stunden und 47 Minuten langen Films beginnt als eine Art Wirtschaftsspionagethriller, in der Lang alle Stärken aufgreifen konnte die den Erfolg seiner früheren Filme "Die Spinnen"(1919), "Mabuse der Spieler"(1922), "Metropolis"(1927) und "Spione"(1928) ausmachten. Ein Konsortium von machtbesessenen Weltenlenkern lässt die Unterlagen der Wissenschaftler stehlen, die eine Raketenreise zum Mond planen. Da es auf dem Mond große Goldvorkommen geben soll wollen sie selbst davon profitieren. Sie erpressen die Wissenschaftler die Reise unter ihrer Führung durchzuführen. Diese windigen Bedingungen sind aber nicht das einzige Risiko für die fünfköpfige Crew, unter der sich auch eine Frau befindet... Bei der Besetzung konnte Fritz Lang teilweise auf schon bewährte Mitarbeiter zurückgreifen. Willy Fritsch, der bereits die Hauptrolle in seinem Film "Spione" innehatte, spielte die männliche Hauptrolle, den Wissenschaftler Wolf Helius, einen Heldentypus mit dem sich das Publikum identifizieren konnte. Ähnliches gilt für die weibliche Hauptrolle, dargestellt von der anbetungswürdigen Gerda Maurus, die bereits ebenfalls schon in "Spione" mit Fritsch zusammen agierte. Fritz Rasp, bereits seit "Metropolis" Stammschauspieler bei Lang, spielte seine wie immer unsympathische Rolle hier besonders widerlich schleimig. Klaus Pohl und Gustl Stark-Gstettenbaur waren neu dabei und drehten danach beide noch über 100 weitere Filme. Und wie immer geizte Lang auch in diesem Film nicht mit Komparsen. Wie bereits erwähnt konnte mich der erste Teil des Films durchaus fesseln, während der zweite Part nicht total übel aber immerhin deutlich schlechter ist. es bleibt jedoch ein insgesamt gesehen guter Film, und ein Klassiker den man gesehen haben muss sowieso. Allerdings nervt die Musik, die nur aus Klaviergeklimper besteht, ziemlich. Das Double-Feature der "Masters of Cinema Series" enthält den Film wie meistens auf Blu-Ray und auf DVD. Die Blu-Ray bietet noch eine ca 15 Minuten lange Doku, die erklärt warum der Film als erster wissenschaftlicher SF-film gilt. Das beigefügte 40-seitige Booklet ist diesmal leider recht theoretisch und für mich persönlich nicht besonders erhellend, aber zumindest gut gemeint.