On The Silver Globe (1988) - 5/10

This might be the first time I’ve watched a film because of a meme, but here we are. This is clearly a visually gripping film, but what’s it all about? It’s obvious from the off that you need to pay attention, maybe less so if you’re Polish, but I’m not and it feels like a dense plot. Astronauts crash land on an alien planet. Handily Earth-like, but made to feel otherworldly with a blue film tint. They proceed to struggle, philosophise and generally lose their marbles, as they hunt and survive, despite some of winged locals giving them a hard time. Honestly if it didn’t look so interesting, it would be quite impenetrable. The camera work and sound design though, along with the fully committed acting, pull the viewer into a newly forming primal society, that really is quite gripping. It’s unashamedly theatrical and in its opening hour, not far from pure arthouse, albeit less abstract. With the arrival of another astronaut (Andrzej Seweryn) though, things get more epic with a distinct folklore grandeur and the introduction of colour to the screen, opens things up and boy does it open up. It’s all very dark and very damning of mankind, certainly not an easy watch and with such a philosophical narrative, it’s easy to be indulgent and this certainly feels like that and it’s not helped by a nearly three hour runtime that often feels like an endurance test. It’s disjointed format, also not helped by a stunted production resulting in missing scenes that are instead somewhat bizarrely narrated. Seweryn is undoubtedly great. Production wise it’s very impressive, ambitious, thought provoking, but it’s like director Andrzej Zulawski’s mind exploding on screen. I expected something challenging, but it’s too much. That said, this feels like something everyone film fan should watch once. I feel like I need to watch it again, but not for a while and not before I’ve done some further reading.

5/10