The Fabulous World of Jules Verne: Czechoslovakia, Steampunk and Zeman in 1958
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Release Date: 04/26/2025
First Men in the Moon: From HG Wells to 1964
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. First Men on the Moon was written by HG Wells and serialised in The Strand Magazine beginning in 1900. The book was published in 1901 a year before Georges Méliès kicked off science fiction cinema with La Voyage dans la Lune in 1902. (You can learn more about that film in episode number 2 .) Then in the swinging 60s as the space race...
info_outline
Missed Episode, Medicine & Metropolis
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
I am very sorry but I have been unwell this past week. (But I am on the mend!) Multiple visits to the hospital mean that although I have the next episode recorded I have not been able to edit it. I've heard many podcasts serve up older episodes in this circumstance. Maybe an annoyance to those who have already heard all the episodes but for those who haven't since it is 2026 it's probably a good opportunity to watch Metropolis (1927) as this year is the year it was set. I have two remarkable and engaging academics speak about it. Sonja Fritzsche is a professor of German Studies and an...
info_outline
Dr. Strangelove: Cold War Comedy & 1964 USA
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. In 1958 the Peter George novel Red Alert was published about the dangers of nuclear war. A few years later when Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a (serious) film about the topic he was recommended the book. Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the resulting film. The film takes aim at...
info_outline
What is Afrofuturism?
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
Time for another detour! An introduction to Afrofuturism with two magnificent guests. You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast it would be greatly appreciated! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. The symbol mentioned in the podcast a few times is the Sankofa symbol which is a recurring symbol in Afrofuturism. It represents the idea that there are things that you go back for (and things you leave behind). You can read more about it on this wiki page: Julian...
info_outline
Ikarie XB-1: 1963 Communist Utopia in Space
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! We’ve discussed Czech scifi before with Karel Zeman’s gorgeous steam punk offering from 1958 Invention for Destruction (dubbed into the English language The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) and we’ve also covered Communists in Space with 1960s The Silent Star (AKA First Spaceship on Venus). The Czech Ikarie XB-1 (1963) has connections to both of those films but also offers an aesthetic that . The year is 2163, communism has won, and a crew of 40 are sent to find life on the white planet in Alpha Centauri with a journey fraught with sociological,...
info_outline
X-Ray Eyes: Roger Corman’s 1963 Psychedelic Sci-Fi
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. Roger Corman produced hundreds of films in his lifetime and directed dozens. X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a colourful, psychedelic, 1960s extravaganza with aspirations of transcendence. If you wanted to join in, you can watch the film X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes from 1963 first. DVDs of the film are available, but it is also...
info_outline
The Manchurian Candidate 1962: Politics, Power & Paranoia
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. In 1959 at the cusp of a new and exciting decade Richard Condon wrote a book that is largely described as a political thriller. And it is a political thriller. But it also fits neatly into my concept of science fiction. To learn more about what is and isn’t science fiction you can head to the heady days of the first episode where the topic...
info_outline
The Day of the Triffids: Wyndham vs Sci-Fi Spectacle
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
There are spoilers ahead for all versions of The Day of the Triffids and also for the film Signs. You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. This episode had been edited down to a more digestible length of under an hour but a longer (audio only) version is available for Patreon subscribers (alongside the shorter option). We are doing things a little differently and discussing the 1963 film along with the source material...
info_outline
Panic in Year Zero: Nuclear Apocalypse & the Nuclear Family
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead! You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. There is a trigger warning for discussion of rape in this episode. I have marked the beginning of that part of the discussion with a beep and the discussion lasts for four minutes and four seconds after the beep if you wanted to skip past it. Last week we told you “” but this week we focus in on the panic. ...
info_outline
Don't Panic: The Hitchhiker's Guide Phenomenon
Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever*
As always there are spoilers ahead. You can buy the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book in most bookshops and you can listen to the radio play on YouTube and also on the Internet Archive. You can follow the podcast on social media on , and . If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show and be revered amongst both the G'Gugvuntts and the Vl'Hurgs: As mentioned elsewhere this is not an analysis of the film or any kind of review of the book but more like a chat...
info_outlineIf you would like to support the podcast and get ad free versions you can subscribe for $3 or £3 a month at https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm
You can follow the podcast on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.
Although science fiction cinema did not begin in the USA it seems that by the 1950s Hollywood had tapped into the ravenous appetite the public had for the genre.
The period is now known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction with an array of films ranging in style, topic and quality. Themes of space travel, alien invasion, nuclear fears and cold war paranoia are strewn across the decade.
Meanwhile in Czechoslovakia Karel Zeman was working on making some cinematic masterpieces made for children based on the works of Jules Verne and other late 19th century authors. In 1958 he made the film Invention for Destruction based on Verne’s novel Facing the Flag. In 1961 this was dubbed in English and retitled The Fabulous World of Jules Verne and distributed by Warner Bros.
The visual style is based on late 19th century etchings and illustrations of Verne’s novels which you can take a look at on this Instagram post.
The film went on not only to inspire many prominent filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki, Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam but also a cohort of writers who cite his film as being the origin for the style of steampunk science fiction.
I spoke to two wonderful guests to understand the historical context and ongoing influence of the film.
Thomas Lamarre is a Professor of Film, Media, and East Asian Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago. He is also the author of the Steam Punk cinema chapter in the Oxford Handbook of New Science Fiction Cinemas.
Mary Heimann is Professor of Modern History at Cardiff University. She is also the author of the book Czechoslovakia: The State that Failed.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the show and Karel Zeman
03:51 Post War Czechoslovakia
06:52 A Christmas Dream and Hermina Týrlová
07:25 Global animation after World War 2
10:48 Journey to the Beginning of Time
12:47 Why haven’t I heard of this film*?
15:37 Science Fiction in Czechoslovakia
18:27 Steampunk!
23:08 Thomas’ experience of the film
24:58 The Czech perspective
26:12 The Czech New Wave and the Prague Spring
30:58 Milos Forman and filmmakers in exile
32:19 The messaging and nature of the film
35:56 Legacy
41:41 Recommendations for the listener
44:44 Ads and subscription details
NEXT EPISODE!
Next episode we will be speaking about another lesser known science fiction film: The World, the Flesh and the Devil from 1959. You can find out where the film is streaming in your region on the Just Watch website and an internet search brings a few leads for the full film online.
*Possibly because I am stupid.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.