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The Appropriate Tune - "None of Them Knew They Were Robots" by Mr. Bungle
Since the dawn of human civilization, man has been fascinated with the concept of recreating man. We see it in art, like in Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses, which was later adapted into the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, and we see it in various cultures like China and even Great Britain where stories of ‘mechanical men’ entertained aristocrats and the like, although their capabilities were likely not that extraordinary by modern standards. However it’s not until the 20th century that the mechanical man got its name, the robot, and its ultimate purpose, as a source of free, obedient labor. A concept with rather dark implications in this capitalistic age, where most of the people on the planet exist as workers, at the whim of those who are always looking to cut costs, no matter the human cost.
In America, particularly for that time, these implications were undercut or outright ignored as people were taken in by fancy toys and ‘wave of the future’ hyperbole, but in the Soviet Union, a state that had been built by and for workers, the politics of the thing were not so easily dismissed. So a film was likely, if not inevitable, and as film was coming into its own as an artistic and political tool, and with Aelita had opened the door for science fiction almost a decade prior, audiences wouldn’t have to wait long to see a different perspective on ‘the robot issue’. Emphasis mine because ‘the robot issue’ sounds like a cool band name.
Released in the Soviet Union in 1935, Loss of Sensation/Jim Ripple’s Robot was directed by Aleksandr Andriyevsky, written by Georgiy Grebner and produced through Mezhrabpomfilm, based on the play “R.U.R.” by the Czech novelist and dramatist Karel Čapek. Sergei Vecheslov stars as Jim Ripple, an engineering student of a polytechnic institute in the city of ‘Big Lights’, a position which mostly consists of trying to build a better conveyor belt in order to improve profits for the factory owners. After his latest experiment ends up causing one worker to go crazy and another to die, Ripple ponders his life choices, and comes up with a solution. The foundation of capitalism is labor--capitalists exploit the labor of workers to produce commodities, which they then sell to workers, and so on to grow their wealth. So if you were to replace the worker with something that had no need for food or water or anything that the capitalists use to hold over the workers, and thus no profit would be produced. Thus capitalism would die out on its own, and there would be no need for a revolution. It’s foolproof.
To that end Ripple creates his mechanical worker, the very first robot (the word ‘robot’ actually originated from the play). However when he shows it off to his working class family they reject it, seeing it as a tool that capitalists will use to neutralize the worker’s main advantage and a betrayal of the working class in general. Frustrated over their inability to recognize how right he is, Ripple runs away from home, when he happens to receive a telegram from his school chum Hamilton Grim. Seems that there are a couple old rich guys who are very interested in this robot idea, and they’re willing to hand out some money and lab space in order to get it up and running. Ripple accepts immediately, eager for the opportunity to show everyone how his genius will fix the problems of society. When Jim Ripple’s Robots finally walk the earth however, who really benefits?
Watching Loss of Sensation I can’t help but be reminded of Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is so convinced of his own skills that he believes himself equal to God, and sets out to prove it by creating life. Similarly Ripple places himself above the working, deciding that he understands the problems the workers face and how to solve them better than the workers do, and when the workers reject his idea he immediately jumps to the capitalists to get it done anyway, never once questioning why they would be so eager to fund a project that stands to destroy their way of life (the capitalists, much like the workers, must be too ignorant to understand his grand design). Both men through their work end up creating monsters that prove to be their undoing, making them tragic figures, but it’s their self-awareness that sets them apart. Frankenstein recognizes his mistake right after he makes it and works to fix or at least mitigate it. Ripple on the other hand is lost in his own little bubble, upset that his friends and family would reject his work but unable or unwilling to reflect and consider WHY they feel that way. So when the climax to their respective stories occurs you feel sympathy towards Frankenstein because he earned those feelings, whereas with Jim Ripple it’s hard to feel anything except a sense of karma being served. Just another mess that the workers are forced to clean up.
As I said the play this film is based on, “R.U.R.” is where the word robot originated from, and robots are what you get in this movie. While they look rather goofy by today’s standards (accordion arms will do that to ya) the things themselves look well made, comparable to anything you’d see in American films at the time, although you know American studios would try to build the entire film on one robot, where here you get a dozen or so. They’re effective movie monsters too -- the shots during the climax of the film where the robots are slowly rolling down the streets or in the woods fighting the workers, invulnerable and unstoppable, are surprisingly creepy. A bulky predecessor to the Daleks of Doctor Who, only instead of death rays they just crush you to death.
There’s a certain surreality to Loss of Sensation too that feels more closer to German Expressionism than Frankenstein or Dracula ever accomplished. The conveyor system, which is just this big spinning wheel is the first, but then almost immediately afterwards where Ripple is brooding the in the bar, and the band is standing on a platforms playing, and there’s a giant potted plant, and this woman is selling these ‘automatic dolls’, it’s very bizarre. There’s also this moment where Ripple has a flash jumpcut like something out of Jacob’s Ladder, and the ‘Dance of the Robots’ scene which feels right at home next to the Black Mass bit from Häxan. Credit to Mark Magidson for the excellent cinematography, despite the quality of the surviving print being a tad if you can tell Loss of Feeling was setting itself apart from its peers.
Loss of Sensation/Jim Ripple’s Robot gets the recommendation. Of the two Soviet science-fiction covered on this blog I think it tells its story, sends its message and thrills an audience more consistently than Aelita. Worth a watch, especially if you’ve seen all the Universal Monster movies and are looking for something in a similar vein. Maybe pair it up with Franenstein or The Invisible Man and make a night of it. I’m sure you’ll be feeling something by the end of it.
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