http://www.metafilter.com/tags/hermannoberth Posts tagged with 'hermannoberth' at MetaFilter. Sun, 19 Dec 2004 14:36:17 -0800 Sun, 19 Dec 2004 14:36:17 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/37981/Woman%2Din%2Dthe%2DMoon <a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/lang.html">Fritz Lang's</a> last silent film, <em><a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/04/woman_in_the_moon.html">Woman in the Moon</a></em>, has just been released by <a href="http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=728">Kino Video </a>in a lovingly restored and remastered edition, expanded to its original running time of 169 minutes. (Prior releases of the film in the US had as much as half of the original footage removed, with altered title cards that completely changed the storyline.) <em>Woman in the Moon</em> is considered to be <a href="http://www.rocketshipvideo.com/reviews/womaninthemoon.html">the first real attempt to depict a flight to the moon in film</a> that <a href="http://www.moma.org/collection/depts/film_media/blowups/film_media_002.html">wasn't completely fantastic</a>, thanks to the technical input of <a href="http://www.kiosek.com/oberth/">Hermann Oberth</a>, who later went on play a key role in the development of the German <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3634212.stm">V-2 rocket.</a> As a piece of futurism, <em>Woman in the Moon</em> gets a few things wrong (the Moon of the film has a breathable atmosphere, for one thing), but it's also surprisingly prescient as well (the rocketship that voyages to the moon has multiple stages). Its most significant contribution to popular culture is the reverse countdown to blastoff, which was invented by the filmmakers as a dramatic device. tag:metafilter.com,2004:site.37981 Sun, 19 Dec 2004 14:36:17 -0800 film fritzlang futurism hermannoberth kino remastered restored v2 womaninthemoon Prospero