As I mentioned before, I was pretty frustrated by not getting into “Droles d’oiseaux” which I kind of planned on but instead spent over three hours doing essentially nothing. I had a book with me but couldn’t really get into it, and shopping is strangely not fun when you are not in the mood for it. I was glad when that was over and my final screening of the day started.
Ropaci (Oil Gobblers)
Czechoslovakia 1988, Jan Sv?rák, 22′
A team of 4 researchers and cameramen are looking for signs of a new species, the oil gobblers. They live in toxic smoke, eat rubber and drink petroleum, and in fact are only able to survive in polluted industrial environments.
I’d describe the film as satirical pretend documentary (I guess you call that a “mockumentary”), and as you may all know, I love quasi-documentaries like “District 9” and “My Winnipeg”. While I am often bored by actual documentaries, I really like it when I see a film playing with the medium and giving it a more or less fictional twist.
I never though that “Ropaci” was as laughing out loud funny as some people did in the audience, but it’s definitely a film that could have been longer and still be interesting. Apparently it’s become some sort of cult film, and it made quite an impact on the audience at the time because people actually took it serious. I thought that anyone who could take it seriously must have a pretty bleak outlook on society and technological development, but maybe people expected both the best and the worst of technology back in the day.
Other than that, I thought the film had a very clever premise, and despite not explicitly laughing, I found it enjoyable throughout the course of its short run.
Ikarie XB 1
Czechoslovakia 1963, Jind?ich Polák, 88′
Based on a Lem story, Ikarie XB 1 is a spaceship with 40 men on the way to Alpha Centauri looking for alien life. First, they stumble upon an empty spaceship from a long time ago, then they all fall sick because a dark star is drawing out their energy and finally, one of them has a mental breakdown and he threatens the life of the entire crew.
First of all, I thought it was notable how incredibly stylish the film was. Much like “Himmelskibet”, its production values are impressive and the sets, the character and costume designs are absolutely impeccable. I can see how the film inspired Kubrick for “2001” because this is such an unabashedly pretty film. It also comes with psychedelic music and a very good-looking dance and party scene.
When it comes to the substance, however, I thought the film had very little of it compared to other highly acclaimed science-fiction films of the time. Even Eolomea, the almost satirical comedy, is serious about the questions it’s asking. Ikarie XB 1 is largely an adventure story, and it took me awhile to realize that it is almost a slice of life that moves from one little challenge to another little challenge throughout the film. For me, it probably would have worked better as a mini-series with each episode focusing on one of the adventures of the crew. Thinking about it, “2001” is a little bit like that too (it is subtitled “odyssey” for a reason). However, I think nothing can really compare to “2001” since that one is ultimately a unique and wacky film, much unlike Ikarie XB 1 whose story is comparably more generic.
The film ends on a very hopeful, positive note with a baby being born and the crew realizing that benevolent aliens must have helped them to get out of the grip of the dark star, so the film actually manages to have a kind of conclusion after being quasi-episodic for so long. I thought that was a nice idea, just like watching the film was generally very satisfying.