Early Science Fiction coming out of the Fifties drive-in haze and B-movie madness about space travel, in general, tends to leave a wide gap between what is artistic about Sci-Fi films and where they hoped to predict the future. This early story by Polish master Stanislaw Lem ("Solaris") is beautifully rendered visually in this film that predicts Sci-Fi's future.
Jindřich Polák's story and direction make this black-and-white vision fairly sumptuous compared to other European films of the day. While borrowing heavily from Fred Wilcox's 1956 escapist "Forbidden Planet," "Ikarie XB-1" makes smart production decisions that avoid the claustrophobia of a large vessel in space ("Solaris" and "Alien") while never getting close enough in a shot to allow you to see dated switches, lights, and levers. The direction as this large group (40 people on the ship! Men and women!) encounters an abandoned vessel and a radioactive "dark star" is straight out of the serials of yore. Then, as a crew member goes mad and threatens the entire mission, we are exposed to this trope that will dot Sci-Fi films for years to come. (Those braincap-looking communicators even predate "The Matrix").
The acting is not the best. However, the fact that the actors interact so well makes the more workman-like sequences feel real. In two excellent narrative additions up front, their gymnasium-style health plan provides the opportunity for careful cinematography where action is everywhere. Also, in an inspired bit, they wheel out a 20th-century robot to laugh at. A fascinating sequence given the first author to write about robots was Czech playwright Karel Čapek in 1921.
Finally, there is a truly beautiful sequence where the second-in-command communicates with his wife at home via video screen. Combined with the novel aspects of a futuristic life on this ship, the officer is filmed with astonishing closeness (think Bergman's "Persona"-on its way in three years) and connection. It is only when the camera pulls out that we are allowed to see it is like a conference room. Her expressions and his shadow even allude to the large disparity in their relationship. Finally, in a very Lem-ian manner, we first lose the signal and are warned of further outages, before the pair return for the most intimate and poignant exchange over their daughter.
After winning awards at European Sci-Fi Film festivals, the props were even repurposed into a Czech children's film. Like most Sci-Fi from overseas, American studios regularly purchased it and re-edited it to conform to US audiences. Renamed "Voyage To The End of The Universe," Samuel Z. Arkoff's American International Pictures chopped ten minutes from it and changed the ending. Weirdly, the surprise ending is reminiscent of a major film to come. (Hey, no spoilers.)
"Ikarie XB-1" is a curiosity in the history of Film. A movie that might shed light on the European Sci-Fi of the 50s that was missed due to the Cold War. As Sci-Fi cinema grows more serious in the mid-60s, it is possible that Kubrick and his designer Wally Veevers got a good look at these hidden gems for ideas. Sixty years later, the film is finally available to us in its original unaltered form via Criterion.
