Woman in the Moon
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Woman in the Moon, or in original German, Frau im Mond is a science fiction silent film released in 1929, and is often considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films. The title Frau im Mond translates to "Woman in the Moon". It was written and directed by Fritz Lang, based on the novel Die Frau im Mond (1928, translated as The Rocket to the Moon in 1930) by his then-wife and collaborator Thea von Harbou. It was released in the USA as By Rocket to the Moon, and in the UK as Woman in the Moon.
The film is a strange mixture of accurate science and bad guesses. The basics of rocket travel are presented to a mass audience for the first time. The idea that the moon rocket Friede would be submerged in water before launch was a bad guess. Also, the first thing the space travelers do upon reaching the moon is use a dowsing rod to search for water; the Moon is too arid to extract water from even if it could be found.
Though the special effects used in the movie were innovative for their time, the movie was not a financial success. The failure can be partly attributed to the public's move away from silent films by 1929.
