An extraordinary journey. We don’t have to touch the streets anymore.
Machines are waiting for us, and rockets take us away.
It is a pity that there are no more cabs in Moscow.
At least one, and there will be no more... I'm sorry.
I bow to the low knowledge of the sea to the vast,
A wise man of his age, a learned man of his age, loving him.
(Bulat Okudzhava)
The nineteenth century can rightly be called a great turning point in history. The technological revolution has shrugged its mighty shoulders, for centuries setting the vector for humanity – higher, faster, stronger. It was a race with ourselves and the world around us, no longer for survival, not even for expansion, but to test the limits of our capabilities. The development of technology did not bypass great geographical discoveries: the world accelerated, the emergence of mechanisms gave opportunities for imagination. This side of the then life found its singer, great humanist, science fiction, worker Jules Verne. For a century and a half, his books have been in demand, read and filmed, and readers swim along with the heroes of the 37th parallel of southern latitude, fly in a balloon over a raging ocean, stand next to Michel Ardan in the core flying to the moon, open the poles, ply the sea on a whaling ship and harpoon sea giants.
Here, of course, is not complete without the eternal “Would I have been as smart yesterday as my wife is today.” Educated and free-to-fly, Jules Verne could not see further than the actual data he had at his disposal. Read his books have to take into account the frank, as we would now say, cranberries: the condor in Africa, the ocean at the South Pole and the continent at the North, the terrifying confusion with the dates in the trilogy and the cast-iron core at a speed sufficient to get beyond the atmosphere. Around the World in 80 Days is an excellent example of an adventure novel with a long journey, a kaleidoscope of countries and events. Verne's creations are cosmopolitan, in them all 5 known continents, many people of different nationalities, but often does not do without the introduction of a Frenchman into the text, whom the author describes with warmth and love, sometimes with good-natured ridicule.
The film adaptation of 1956 seems to repeat the tradition of the writer himself. The main roles are Englishman David Niven, Mexican Cantinflas, American Shirley MacLaine, and in the episodes there are German Marlene Dietrich, Hungarian Peter Lorre, Frenchman Fernandel... The canvas is preceded by a scene that tells about how the world accelerated with the help of mechanisms and technology. The film adaptation of the lunar dilogy has already been filmed, but 5 years remain before Gagarin’s flight. One might get the impression that Govorukhin was impressed with this scene, inserting scenes in his “In Search of Captain Grant” in which Jules Verne himself is present. The film itself is distinguished by exquisite English slowness, a penchant for beautiful close-ups, which may seem boring for lovers of action and adventure. Phileas Fogg, performed by Niven, would be a perfect illustration for the word "gentleman" in the dictionary of classical English - unflappable, very punctual, extremely gallant esquire. His servant Passepartout, played by Cantinflas, is a charming slob, appearing to the viewer as the antipode of his master, but the antipode, logically complementing him. Together they fly in a hot air balloon, take part in bullfighting, ride an elephant through the Indian jungle, rescue the widow of a raja (whose story is presented by the director is extremely illogical), visit Hong Kong and Japan. The XIX century appears to the viewer with cabs in London, gas lamps in Fogg’s apartment, British colonists in tropical helmets in India, sailing ships. In America, scenes shot in the style of a Western definitely add action and tension to the film. Ultimately, Fogg as a character goes through an evolution, and for the humanist Jules Verne, it's a very logical decision that (importantly) doesn't look fake or foreign. The screen adaptation pleases with its proximity to the spirit of the novel, good actors and the music of the Oscar-winning Victor Young, very English in spirit - sonorous and ironic.
Perhaps the French writer himself would have chuckled to learn that he is the steampunk grandfather. He died long before this concept came into use. But his books, so different in scope of life and geography, and so similar in moral conclusions, in high humanism and sincere faith in man, are a vivid manifesto of the then life, difficult from the point of view of our padded time, but was the first step of a long journey to the present post-industrial era. A portrait of the century, whose vices were flaunted by the then advanced people, but who gave us electricity, preventive vaccinations, subway, telephone. A display of a life in which there were geographical discoveries, whaling, the suppression of the Sepoy rebellion, Darwin’s journey, the Civil War in the United States, the slave trade ... This disproves the theory that Verne's books are only good for 12 to 15-year-olds - about travel to read for fun. From the category of adventure books, with the age of the reader, they pass into the most interesting artifacts of the era, which, on the one hand, was so long ago, and on the other hand, they are not. What are 100-200 years of history? A grain of sand. And it's not Jules Verne's predictive genius, after all, his prophecies are quite relative in terms of technology. The writer himself in the story “One Day of an American Journalist in 2889” brilliantly formulated the essence of his books: “People of this century live like in a fairy tale, without even knowing it.” Filled with miracles, they remain indifferent to what daily brings them progress. If you compare the present with the past, it becomes clear how great the path traveled by mankind. How much more beautiful would seem to our contemporaries cities with a constant temperature, with streets a hundred meters wide, houses three hundred meters high and the sky, which ply thousands of aircrews and aeroomnibuses! What are next to today’s cities – their population often reaches ten million – all these villages, villages that existed a thousand years ago, some Paris, London, Berlin or New York, poorly ventilated, dirty, which moved clumsy boxes drawn by horses – yes! horses! – just can not believe! If the people of our century could imagine the construction of packageboats and railways with their frequent disasters and low speed, how highly they would appreciate air trains, especially the wonderful pneumatic underwater tunnels crossing the oceans - tunnels through which passengers are transported at a speed of fifteen hundred kilometers per hour! Finally, wouldn’t we enjoy phonotelephotography more fully, remembering that our ancestors had to use an antediluvian apparatus called the telegraph? And although now there is only the XXI century and not all of this prophecy has come true, it is impossible not to applaud the brilliant conclusion of the creator. More than 100 years have passed since he died, but the fruits of his labors continue to delight people as much as they delighted during his lifetime, for they imprint the soul of the author and all the characteristic features and aspirations of his native time.
