THE SCIENCE FICTION FILM

1. THE BIRTH OF THE SCIENCE FICTION FILM GENRE

1.1. Georges Méliès – The Originator

When it comes to tracing the history of science fiction film, the name Georges Méliès stands out as an
early “originator” of the genre. Méliès created well over 500 short films between 1896 and 1914,
many of which have come to be regarded as early science fiction films. Originally a stage magician,
Méliès became interested in manipulating film to create “tricks” and to reveal seemingly impossible
events. In 1902, he released Le Voyage dans la lune, which is often cited as the first “science fiction”
film. This fourteen-minute film reveals the influence of novels like Jules Verne’s From the Earth to
theMoon and H. G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon (1901): in particular it features a large cannon
that fires the men to the moon, which was the mode of transport as described in Verne’s story, and the
Selenite aliens that populate the moon are given the same name as the aliens in Wells’ novel. The film
is constructed around moments of theatrical spectacle and optical novelty, the visual depiction of
outlandish machines and the bumbling escapades of the explorers suggesting a gentle satire of Verne’s
and Wells’ reveries.
Although Le Voyage dans la lune has become Méliès’ most famous film, two further films also
deserve a mention: Le Voyage à travers l’impossible(1904) and L’Éclipse du soleilenpleine lune
(1907). The former is in many respects a more ambitious version of Le Voyage dans la lune, only here
the explorers head for the sun. Approximately twenty minutes in length, the film follows the intrepid
members of a geographical society who plan a trip around the world using every conceivable means
of transport at their disposal: train, automobile, balloon, submarine, boat and so on. Sexuality is
central in L’Éclipse du soleilenpleine lune, a cheeky little film (its running time is approximately nine
minutes) featuring what appears as a homosexual encounter between an effeminate moon and a
devilishly masculine sun.

1.2. The Silent Shorts

Many of Méliès’ films were pirated and plagiarised before the motion picture copyright law was
passed in 1912, but this does not account for the sheer number of silent shorts of the period that made
pseudo-scientific endeavour and exploration their main theme. These films appeared from all over
Europe and the US and covered a great range of scientific subjects in a seemingly frenzied attempt to
come to terms with a fast changing world. For instance, the shock wave caused by Charles Darwin’s
revolutionary book, The Origin of Species by Means ofNatural Selection, or The Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle forLife (first published 1859), was felt throughout the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century and many early films showed a concern with human evolution and the
biological sciences. The British-French co-production The Doctor’s Experiment:or, Reversing
Darwin’s Theory (1908) featured a mad scientist who turned several men into apes, and many later
films contained a similarly Darwinian perspective married with narratives resembling Robert Louis
Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886): examples include the
British-made The Duality of Man (1910) and a Danish film called DenSkaebnesvangre(1910). One of
the first film adaptations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein also appeared in 1910, being produced in the
US by Thomas Edison. What is notable is that once the biological sciences are invoked in these films,
the majority move closer to what we might now regard as horror.

1.3. Interwar European Landmarks

It is not surprising that the years leading up to World War II should witness films that expressed a
greater level of fear and sheer horror in the face of modern man’s scientific achievements. As war
became reality, the production of early “science fiction” films went into decline. However, the inter-
war years did see the release of a number of landmark films from Europe. The most famous of these
were the Soviet film, Aelita(dir. YacovProtazanov, 1924), based upon a 1922 novel of the same name
by Alexei Tolstoy, Germany’s Metropolis (dir. Fritz Lang, 1927), and Britain’s adaptation of H. G.
Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come (1933), simply entitled Things toCome (dir. William Cameron
Menzies, 1936). All of these films are epic in their construction of detailed and futuristic urban
settings as well as in their narrative scope and ideals.
Aelitais primarily remembered for the constructivist sets and costumes, which mark the Martian world
as separate from the earthly world of the male protagonist. However, the ideas associated with
constructivism as an architectural and artistic movement at this time indicate that it was used to
convey more than just a futuristic or other-worldly environment. The setting worked to communicate
a particular ideological system: a socialist system.
As the title suggest, the city plays a crucial role in Metropolis, working to suggest the literal
construction of a utopian world. Partly inspired by a view of the New York skyline that Lang
experienced as he was travelling from post-war Berlin, the high-rise architecture in Metropolis could
loosely be called Modernist in design, although it also displays expressionist, Art Deco and Gothic
influences. The lifestyle of the wealthy elite who populate the imposing skyscrapers relies upon the
continued oppression of the proletariat that live and work in a squalid, industrial environment
underneath the city. So, this utopian urban vision is literally built upon the pain and servitude of the
working classes.
Metropolis emerged at a time of political and economic uncertainty during the Weimar period in
Germany (1919–33). After the nation’s defeat in World War I, a new constitution and Republic came
into being. This attempt to set up a liberal democracy basically failed with the rise of Adolf Hitler and
the Nazi Party in 1933. The Weimar period was marred by civil unrest, hyperinflation, economic
depression and workers’ strikes. Lang’s answer to the problems of the period was concentrated upon
the relations between working and ruling classes. Rather than depicting an entirely alternate world,
the city of Metropolis can therefore be seen as an exaggeration of a known world.
Metropolis had a huge impact on science fiction that followed and Things to Come was inevitably
compared to this earlier German film. However, Things to Come was released after popular cinema
had moved into the “sound period,” following the introduction of synchronous sound in the late
1920s. Making full use of this relatively new cinematic technology, Things toCome included a
musical score and several of the characters were given long, rhetorical speeches. The characters are
undeniably stereotypes, intended to stand for ideas and sectors of society. Wells had himself written
the screenplay, so one can assume that the speeches given these characters worked to play out his
known political views (he was an outspoken socialist). While the film is largely remembered for
“predicting” World War II, the novel was an unashamedly utopian and political fiction that depicted
Wells’ idea for a “world state” as a necessary goal to ending war and conflict. As Wells makes clear in
the novel, he sees no future for either capitalism or communism and believes that this “world state”
would best be run by a benevolent dictator. Wells placed great faith in the intellectual elite in society,
especially scientists, believing that they were best equipped to design and run his “world state.”
These inter-war films obviously speak to the political and social unrest of their times. The future city
in all three films not only denotes the fruits of a literal programme of rebuilding, but also symbolises
social construction and reconstruction. Even though each of these cities is in many ways remarkably
similar in design, each represents rather different versions of a socialist ideal. This is hardly surprising
given the differences between the national and cultural contexts within which they were made.
Although there are certainly dystopian elements in all three films, each in its own way promotes a
technocratic society, governed by science or a scientific world-view and organised around the model
of the modern city. Thus, these films look forward to the future with some optimism, an optimism that
became extraordinarily rare in this film genre after World War II.
The blatant politicisation of the genre at this time signals the serious intent of these European films.
To some extent, both Aelitaand Things to Come also relied upon the kudos conferred by pre-existing
novels. While these films were certainly entertaining for their moments of spectacle, they were also
didactic. They were not what a contemporary audience might associate with the fast-paced and
exciting Hollywood science fiction films of today.