Encounter in Space

Encounter in Space (Mechte Navstrechu) (1963)

Runtime: A brisk 62 minutes

Directed by: Mikhail Karyukov, Otar Koberidze

Starring: Larisa Gordeichik, Boris Borisyonok, Koberidze, Peeter Kard, the Russian voice of Vitold Janpavlis

From: Odessa Film Studios

Now here is something completely different from me. In the past I used to discuss very obscure films… now, those moments are few and far between. On YouTube a subtitled copy has been saved in a list for literally years; the sudden urge to see this Soviet sci-fi with less than 200 ratings struck me. I’ve seen some others (not just the ones directed by Tarkovsky) that happened to have footage used for a series of Corman genre efforts, along with the wacky 70’s “kids travel in space” films Moscow-Cassiopeia/Teens in the Universe.

I’ll give examples at the end but for Encounter, some shots and the main plot point were borrowed for 1966’s Queen of Blood, which extrapolated that into John Saxon and Dennis Hopper transport an alien back to Earth who’s actually a… space vampire! Encounter’s plot is far less exciting than Blood. The two share the idea of a space ship from an alien world traveling to Earth but crashing on Mars so cosmonauts need to get their asses to Mars to try & save them. Encounter’s aliens are not only of the kindly persuasion, they are actually minor plot points in this movie filled w/o much incident.

You see, to echo a phrase from another Letterboxd review, the movie isn’t so much about the plot and characterization (although the leads are a romantic pair) but rather the visuals and the mood. They thankfully had enough of that in a threadbare story that is a bit dry even for my tastes and the music is so appropriately ethereal (well, not the two loopy songs w/ doofy lyrics that are played throughout)-like for an outer space setting that it even makes up for a real groaner of an ending. It looked great visually considering what the budget must have been-no wonder Corman tapped this resource… it embarrassed the American B-movies of the time in terms of effects-so there’s no regrets in watching this oddity that’s barely more than an hour long.

As I reviewed these films many moons ago, I’ll post the links to reviews I did of lesser-known Soviet sci-fi: 

1974’s Moscow-Cassiopeia

1974’s Teens in the Universe

1962’s Planet of Storms, i.e. Planeta Bur or several other titles. Corman managed to use footage for THREE of his sci-fi movies.

1959’s Nebo Zovyot. Corman dubbed it and released the film as Battle Beyond the Sun… after making some changes, including having COPPOLA create some incredibly vulgar monsters.

One last picture to mention: 

1989’s Hard to be a God. No, the 2013 movie wasn’t the first effort to tell that story. I need to check out that newer effort; it has to be drastically different from the ’89 movie (a product of a few different European countries besides the Soviet Union) as the end credits song is an amazing late 80’s power ballad sung in English and a supporting character is played by WERNER HERZOG, even though he did not direct the film.