"The only sci-fi movie made during the Occupation days ", "Croisières Sidérales " is another of those escape movies that were supposed to make the French forget they were under the Germans' thumb.
With the exception of the movies made by Meliès in the prehistoric times ,there are very few "space movies" (if there are any) in France .This one features scenes "in space" but the lack of means make them ludicrous;ditto for the Venus exploration,where you can breathe as easily as on good old Earth ,where the natives (a man and a woman,another Adam and Eve) speak French ,like everybody should in the universe ;sign of the times ,the two lovers choose to stay on this planet,after learning that "on Venus ,we have science but we use it in a good way ,in a way you people of the Earth don't".
The subject of the movie was the theory of relativity ,perhaps (correct me if I'm wrong) the first time screenwriters had used it for their story.But it's really a dismal attempt:although a line in the credits claims that the movie was based on scientific facts,who could believe that Madeleine Sologne and Julien Carette (Julien Carette!)are explorers of the stratosphere (and more)?
The director seems to be caught between two stools (and even three): the movie is ,in turn,dramatic (the woman meeting up with her husband ,who has become an old man),comic (sometimes unintentionally)or close to musicals (as the tourists are about to leave for the space-time mysteries, girls are singing and dancing all over the place ,as if they were in a Fred Astaire movie.)
