Woman in the Moon
Short description
Woman in the Moon follows the scientist Georg Manfeldt, whose theory that the Moon holds large deposits of gold is dismissed by his colleagues. The engineer and aircraft manufacturer Wolf Helius takes the idea seriously and sets about building a rocket for a lunar expedition, joined by the engineer Hans Windegger and the astronomy student Friede Velten. Preparations for the flight take up the film's first half; the journey itself and what the crew encounters make up the second, with tensions among those on board threatening the venture.
Fritz Lang directed and produced the film, his fifth in a career that would run to twenty-four features, arriving between Metropolis and M. He wrote the screenplay with Thea von Harbou and the rocket theorist Hermann Oberth. Willy Fritsch plays Helius, Gerda Maurus plays Friede Velten, Klaus Pohl plays Manfeldt, Gustav von Wangenheim plays Windegger and Fritz Rasp appears as Walt Turner. Made in Germany by UFA and Fritz Lang-Film, it runs 170 minutes and mixes drama and romance with science fiction.
Reception has been favorable without being unanimous. On IMDb it holds 7.3 from around 4,200 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from considerably fewer voters, while film critics have rated it 6.6 from ten reviews, so audiences have generally responded more warmly than critics did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's technical consultant was the outstanding German engineer Hermann Oberth, one of the pioneers of rocket technology and an enthusiast for the idea of spaceflight, a predecessor and teacher of Wernher von Braun. Moreover, his involvement in this project significantly helped Oberth in experiments to build a real liquid-fueled rocket.
- The film was the first to show a pre-launch countdown. It was devised as a dramatic device to build tension, but proved extremely useful and subsequently naturally became standard practice in rocket launches.
- The most common version of the film has a runtime of 169 minutes. The restored complete version from 2000 lasts 200 minutes. The American theatrical release was cut down to 95 minutes.
- A frame from the film was painted on the lower part of the fuselage of the first V-2 rocket prototype.
- The film is based on the science fiction novel by Thea von Harbou, the director's wife at the time.
- This film was included in NASA's list of the most scientifically accurate science fiction films.
- The launch complex for the space rocket strikingly resembles the NASA launchpad at Cape Canaveral in many details, with the exception of the launch from a water-filled shaft. The other circumstances (the large size of the rocket, its refueling with liquid fuel, its removal from the hangar in a vertical position, the launch masts, the crew boarding from a lift into the second stage) represent an example of remarkably accurate technical foresight.
- According to the film's concept, there is no weightlessness in space (it occurs only in the area of equilibrium between the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Moon).
- In the pavilion where the film was shot, a 17-year-old Werner von Braun worked as a simple assistant during the summer vacation of 1929. Forty years later, under the direction of this man, a real flight to the Moon was carried out under the "Apollo" program.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
