Woman in the Moon

The successor to his revolutionary Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s next foray revisited science fiction with a spectacular portrayal of the first lunar expedition. Four decades before man actually walked on the moon, this meticulously-researched ode to space exploration was the first time a wide audience was introduced to the concept of interplanetary travel, and the first cinematic occurrence of a rocket countdown to zero.

The masterpiece, written by Lang’s wife Thea von Harbou, plays in a Pynchonian milieu of interwar Europe and corporate spies. It was also banned by the Nazis for similarities to the in-development V2 rocket, also central to Gravity’s Rainbow.