I have not felt this way about a movie since watching Tarkovsky's Stalker for the first time. In a way, this movie is a lot like Stalker with its minimalist approach to this grand sci-fi setting and troubled production.
When I first read that 20% of the movie is lost and replaced with narration, I assumed it to be a big chunk somewhere in the middle or maybe the end, but it's much more sporadic. This makes for a quite jarring and almost incoherent experience at first but don't let that turn you off.
The costumes and sets are gorgeous, the heavy use of the blue filter in the barren wasteland makes for a convincing alien landscape, and the long takes with handheld cameras and wide-angle lenses combined with diegetic cinematography make for a unique experience I have yet to see in any other film of the time.
I can't help but wonder how different cinema might have looked if On the Silver Globe was completed in 1978, give or take a year. Maybe a lot? Maybe not so much. Who knows. We can only thank Andrzej Zulawski and the people on the production team who saved what had been shot from the Polish censors.
It might be incomplete and lack a proper conclusion to the story, but when the credits rolled it left me with a poignant and powerful feeling that I have not felt since watching The Holy Mountain for the first time.
When I first read that 20% of the movie is lost and replaced with narration, I assumed it to be a big chunk somewhere in the middle or maybe the end, but it's much more sporadic. This makes for a quite jarring and almost incoherent experience at first but don't let that turn you off.
The costumes and sets are gorgeous, the heavy use of the blue filter in the barren wasteland makes for a convincing alien landscape, and the long takes with handheld cameras and wide-angle lenses combined with diegetic cinematography make for a unique experience I have yet to see in any other film of the time.
I can't help but wonder how different cinema might have looked if On the Silver Globe was completed in 1978, give or take a year. Maybe a lot? Maybe not so much. Who knows. We can only thank Andrzej Zulawski and the people on the production team who saved what had been shot from the Polish censors.
It might be incomplete and lack a proper conclusion to the story, but when the credits rolled it left me with a poignant and powerful feeling that I have not felt since watching The Holy Mountain for the first time.