Ikarie XB 1 (1963)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The acting in this movie is really good.

One always wishes for sci fi films to be good, but one is usually disappointed. This Czech film was a brave and ambitious project which just did not deliver. Some of it is so dated and so corny that it is squirm-making. The scene where the cosmonauts are doing a futuristic dance in their spaceship is utterly appalling. If I were not a heroic viewer who rarely gives up, it would have been turned off then. How did I sit through it? Superhuman powers of endurance, I guess. The film is boring and uninspired. It concerns which is meant to be a journey in the future to the nearest star system of Alpha Centauri, where the scientists have convinced themselves that there are at least two planets which might have intelligent life. The space ship contains a crew of thirty people, male and female, and a woman even gives birth on board, with the camera lovingly dwelling on the baby, 'the first baby born outside the solar system'. There is a good moody interlude in the journey when a wrecked spaceship is encountered. Two of the cosmonauts explore the wreck and discover human bodies inside. It was a secret mission launched in 1987 which didn't make it. So that is a bit of action and gives an opportunity for some moody suspense. The rest of the film is set inside the boring spaceship of the main story, the design of which is singularly uninspired. The actors and the acting are boring, the story is boring, the direction is mediocre, and the whole film is a loser. It is interesting to have seen this curiosity, but I cannot say it was a pleasure. The original title is IKARIE XB-1 (Ikarie being Czech for Icarus), the name of the spaceship, and a later title of this film is VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE. However, as the story does not claim to be a journey to the end of the Universe at all, but only a journey to the nearest star, that title is misleading, to say the least. As the cosmonauts near Alpha Centauri, they encounter a 'dark star' which emits a hitherto unknown radiation, which puts them all to sleep for 19 hours. But that is done in such a corny manner that it is not at all interesting, and one is not in the least concerned as to whether any of those boring actors will ever wake up or not. The people who will really go to sleep because of the dark star are the viewers of this film.

When we think of Eastern Bloc cinema, we think of socialist realism themes required by the Soviet occupiers. Lesser known are the science fiction movies that occasionally emerged from the bloc. Probably the most famous is Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris". Another one is Jindřich Polák's "Ikarie XB-1" (retitled "Voyage to the End of the Universe" in English), which is also based on a Stanisław Lem novel. It's a pretty cornball movie, but still fun. One can see an influence on movies like "2001: A Space Odyssey".I understand that there are two versions of the movie. There is the original one released in Czechoslovkia, and the one released internationally. I saw the international version: anglicized names and a twist ending. It would be interesting to see the original version to find out what the director's original vision was.It's a pretty fun movie, although probably the most important movie from Czechoslovakia from this era was "The Shop on Main Street", for which Zdeněk Liška also did the music. And of course Jan Švankmajer's movies are always neat.

It is unusual to watch a science fiction movie from the early 1960s without wanting to laugh yourself silly, but this little number not only looks the part (albeit in a 60s style -think original Star Trek series production values), it also bridges two distinct styles within the genre. On the one hand, there is the earlier, declamatory style of traditional alien-busting 'Golden Age' sci-fi; on the other the later, more confessional storytelling characterised by '2001: A Space Odyssey' or 'Solaris' through to 'Alien' and 'District 9'. In the latter sort, there is a much darker, dubious foundation; man is usually more a part of the problem than the solution. Arguably, this linking of styles was also achieved quite nicely in 'Forbidden Planet', but excellent as it was, that movie still had us rooting for the 'Cowboys' versus the 'Indians' (despite the 'Indians' being a product of one man's insecure ego), and fell back on that already tired old staple of the misunderstood scientist with a glamorous daughter! For me, the stunning thing about 'Ikarie XB 1' is the astonishingly precocious direction and editing. It is sharp, dynamic and typical of very much later offerings. At a trim 1 hour 23 minutes, it manages to do a great deal. It is true that much of the 'exterior' work is pretty clunky, but that doesn't detract too much from the whole. Also, I'm afraid I did find one thing to laugh myself silly at: the trashing of poor old Patrick, the ageing robot, would have fit right into an episode of 'The Simpsons'! ("Patrick -RETREAT!!"...CLUNK! CRASH! Oh dear, too late!) All this and the discovery of a diabolical weapon called 'Tigger Fun' - what's not to like?This movie can be viewed in entirety, with English subs, on YouTube.Finally, whilst writing this, I have learned (belatedly) of the death in January this year of Anne Francis, who played Altaira in 'Forbidden Planet'. I am sure my sadness at her passing will be shared by many.

Sci-fi is a difficult genre. The reason is, that most of the sci-fi movies are very effect driven, so that might become problem, if the movie has nothing else to offer besides the effects: bad plot makes clunky effects look even sillier. Very few sci-fi movies have managed to keep the charm and awe of movies like Metropolis, which manages to look good even todays standards.Ikarie XB1 is a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the sets look very good. The interiors of the space ship look nice and futuristic without looking silly, the space suit design is very clever, the acting is good and the plot is, while not the greatest thing ever written, relatively well executed. But what is very disappointing in the movie are the exterior shots of the space ships. They look cheap and the ship design is ridiculous with its box shapes and flying saucer shaped shuttles. I wasn't very positively surprised by the music either, which tries too hard to sound like futuristic tech noise.All in all, Ikarie XB1 was a quite positive surprise. I did laugh at couple of occasions, just because of the special effects, but it really isn't that bad of a movie, after you get past of those silly looking space ships. All in all, well worth a watch to a sci-fi fans