“Siegfried” (1924), directed by Fritz Lang. The giant dragon required six operators at one time, and was as much of a technical achievement as the dragon in Douglas Fairbanks’ “Thief of Bagdad,” which was released the same year, in a sign of how Germany’s Weimar-era UFA had the ambition and potential to be a true competitor to Hollywood. This was a year before Lang’s expensive “Metropolis” almost bankrupted the studio.
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Every new invention is a synthesis, the resultant of innumerable inventions which have preceded it in the vast field of mechanics and industry. Science and industry, knowledge and application, discovery and practical realization leading to new discoveries, cunning of brain and of hand, toil of mind and muscle – all work together. Each discovery, each advance, each increase in the sum of human riches, owes its being to the physical and mental work of the past and the present. By what right then can anyone whatever appropriate the least morsel of this immense whole and say – This is mine, not yours?
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Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread (via philosophybits)
In 1976, Hammer Films were planning to make the Vampirella film. Caroline Munro was flown to Italy to do a photo shoot for the role of Vampirella, but turned it down
“Kaschey the Immortal” (1945) was a special effects-fantasy film from the Soviet Union, made by the “Russian Walt Disney,” Alexander Ptushko. Ptushko was a special effects pioneer who primarily made fairy tale and fantasy films, and considering the time, it might be more accurate to say he was a Soviet George Pal instead of Disney.
The plot was based on old Russian stories, about a powerful undead sorcerer, Kaschey, who rules from an always night goblin kingdom of terrifying mountains, and has a sword made of lightning. Kaschey kidnaps a beautiful Russian princess to try to make her his bride. Kaschey cannot be killed because his heart is not inside his body, so the heroes have to venture deep into a lost cavern to destroy his heart.
Released in the USSR on Victory Day, 1945, “Kaschey the Immortal,” feels like an exhuberant victory celebration,
as a good vs. battle where good wins in the end. The imagery of a tyrant rampaging across the world and wrecking Russian cities with his hordes in black must have felt all too familiar to its original audience.
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