On the Silver Globe

I finally managed a track down a copy of this film after looking for it forever. And not only did it live up to expectations, it surpassed them in every way possible! I had no idea what to expect from a Polish sci-fi film from the 70ies and the first thing I noticed were the lavish costumes, extremely impressive sets and great make-up. If someone would attempt to pull off something similar in the US today it would cost insane amounts of money. This is a film by Adrzej Zulawski so it figures that there is a lot of philosophical dialog and religious metaphors aplenty. In a way I was reminded of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky and maybe if he had made his adaptation of DUNE, as he planned for many years, it would have turned out to be something like THE SILVER GLOBE. The copy of the film I watched was taped from the German TV station 3 Sat who actually paid for subtitling the film in German! The rather poor picture quality only stressed the otherworldly beauty of the images. Often the film felt like a transmission from another time or maybe even another planet. It is a truly unique gem, even in it's unfinished form, and a film that is overdue for rediscovery.

Andrzej Zulawski's On the Silver Globe was a movie I was so excited to see ever since I heard of its existence. Even to track it down to watch was something I struggled with for so long. And eventually, once I did come across a way to watch it, I was more than excited to do so.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't keep up. It was a cram fest of any and every philosophical conversation the film could explore, and done so in the most noisy, nauseating and mind numbing way possible.

It had a great first act... Somewhat slow, but consistent and remarkable. Actual conflicts of body and mind. And then it dissolves into madness... the unwatchable kind. The final two acts are just all over the place; with dialogue which people call explorative and introspective, but I feel was vapid, inconsistent and meaningless, with characters that have no individuality, appearing out of thin air at will, all echoing one sentimental philosophy depriving the film of any need to keep its consistency, and with a plot that twists and complicates itself for no apparent reason than to provoke conversation that ends up going nowhere.

Although, one thing that will never cease to amaze me are the visuals; the set designs, costumes, makeup and its unconventional cinematography providing what can only be described as truly otherworldly in its presentation, setting the tone for the movie as accurately and descriptively as possible.

At the end of the day, I'm not hating on it, but simply find it shallow as opposed to what most people say about it in artistic circles. But I'm at least glad that I got to finally watch it, and will forever be content with the knowledge of this movie's existence.

This is a very nihilistic saga that mocks spiritual misconceptions by means of anthropology, myth, religion put under a microscope. It's amazing how Zulawski managed to engage me in this three hour gibberish monologue. The whole thing is very reminiscent of performance art and butoh dancing. That's not to say that the cinematography was uninspired, it was gorgeous.

A really grotesque sci-fi story with some excellent visuals - sadly, the movie was never really finished (production took place in 1976/1977 and was stopped by Polish authorities), in 1988 Silver Globe was presented at the Cannes Film Festival. Because director Zulawski was only able to complete about four-fifths of the film, he used street shots of Warsaw and Kraków to fill the missing parts, while he explains off-screen what is happening according to the script. Despite that unlucky fact, On the Silver Globe is still a really fine journey, but be warned, it is for sure no movie for adepts of Star Wars, Star Trek or such sci-fi movies but for those who hunt after something special. If you dig movies like The Holy Mountain (1975), Zardoz (1974), Stalker (1978), Hard to Be A God (1989, or the version from 2013), O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (1985) and such pearls, Silver Globe may just be the right kind of movie for you. My rate: 7 + 1 for the visuals.

only a truly gifted artist could make something this uncompromisingly weird-it makes lost highway look like an episode of meet the press.okay,let's take a story about a few astronauts leaving earth and landing on a distant planet.the astronauts die off relatively quickly and their children grow up at an accelerated rate-the children spring into being btw,no copulation is ever hinted at much less shown-so quickly as to reach their tenth (or so) birthdays in a matter of days.the children welcome the next visitor,presumably from the planet poland,as a god...and i'm not sure what happened after that...that last sentence which probably took you about ten seconds to read is the only synopsis for this 2hr30min minute film i can muster.and i have no idea if what i wrote is even remotely accurate.to say i didn't really follow this movie is besides the point,its greatness lies not in its storytelling abilities so much but in the tough to discern netherworlds of aura and atmosphere.whatever the holy mountain,electra,my love,mulholland drive,blood of a poet or the other 2 giants of polish sur-reality,the saragossa manuscript and the hourglass sanatorium have-this movie has too.i lack the ability to describe sufficiently all the films i've just mentioned so all i can really tell you is that after i watched on the silver globe i knew that i had liked what i had seen.yes,it's totally insane but it's not bad...just don't ask me why....