I’m no expert on silent films. I’ve seen my fair share. Probably seen more than the average fella my age. The silent medium presents several very interesting problems to the storyteller. Particularly how to demonstrate and have drama with no real dialogue. This gives birth to several silent tropes. A very common trope within this era, one I can’t stand, is the love triangle.
Aelita, Queen of Mars has two love triangles within the narrative. The reason for my disliking of this trope is how poorly the gender dynamics and politics have aged in the almost 100 year gap from when this was made. In particular the protagonist of the film, the male who’s intertwined in presumably two love triangles, is incredibly toxic and how he reacts to the triangles is deplorable. One, the more problematic triangle, is when he thinks his wife is cheating on him. Which meets its end when he JUST TRIES TO SHOOT HIS WIFE THEN COMES BACK TO HER AND ASKS FOR FORGIVENESS AND SHE ACCEPTS!!! WHAT!!!!! The other triangle is one born from his own personal fantasy. Which oddly enough, ends with him TRYING TO MURDER AELITA I DON’T UNDERSTAND! The reason why I hate these triangles is that I’ve spent a lengthy amount of words dictating this about a movie called Aelita, Queen of Mars. I’m not saying that films shouldn’t have love or love triangles but more often than not it will just entirely distract from the bigger ideas of your picture. This film, in particular though, certainly doesn’t make any useful commentary about love.
Thomas' FORL 2220 Blog 
Fair points about the rather flaccid writing behind the love triangle in Aelita. Indeed the entire script is a complete mess. But it is early Soviet cinema, and indeed the first sci-fi film shot in the USSR, so we can take that with a grain of salt. One element of the story that adds to the muddle is that some of the scenes are dreamed or imagined, and others are real. I believe the shooting scene of Natasha by Los is in his dream, and when they make up later it is real life, for example.
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