Please, what's important or necessary in cinema? Nothing. "Important", "necessary" - I can't understand these words (A. Zulawski)
In 1972, the Polish authorities banned «The Devil»
and Andrzej Zulawski left Poland. After a success of «L’important c’est d’aimer»,
the Director was invited back in Poland and was given carte blanche for his next
feature. Andrzej Zulawski decided to film his granduncle’s novel called «On
the Silver Globe». For two years the Director was shooting the film and then
suddenly the authorities have stopped the shooting. Only in 1986 Andrzej
Zulawski got a chance to edit the remaining material and to give a limited
release to the film.
On some planet the group of natives found a capsule
and pass it to the group of researchers. The researchers examines it and find
the filming of an old space voyage. A long time ago, a group of space
researchers left the Earth and gives birth to the new civilization on a remote
planet.
As we know, the most famous work of Arnold J. Toynbee
is a multi-volume « A Study of History». Toynbee points out that
civilization is a closed society, characterized by religion and territory.
There are the generations of civilizations and every civilization passes the
stages of genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and
disintegration. Of course, «A Study of History» was published much later than «On
the Silver Globe», but I am sure that Andrzej Zulawski has read Arnold J.
Toynbee and used the theory of Toynbee in his film.
The film can be divided in three parts: videodiary of a
first expedition; second expedition on the Planet by Marek and events on a
planet which serve as a base for astronauts. Andrzej Zulawski starts with
depicting genesis of the new civilization. On the new planet, one of the
astronauts – Marta - gives birth to a
boy called Tomek. Then Marta gives birth to another children and they start
grouping around Tomek. The only surviving astronaut Jerzy becomes an idol – the
Old Man – and Tomek consolidates his power around a cult of his late mother,
father and the Old Man.
Andrzej Zulawski uses the theory of Toynbee as he did
in his other films with genres, literature and other things. In «On the Silver
Globe» the Director shows how easily society could be corrupted and stripped of
any remains of humanity. In addition, Andrzej Zulawski depicts, through
primitive society, how ideas and theories could be manipulated and changed,
such as Christianity and Marxism.
A lot of Zulawski’s films depicts the lack of faith
and it’s surrogates. In this film, the Director tries to remind a blinded
spectator about true, not changed, commandments. The red line of «On the Silver
Globe» is the Second Commandment: «Thou shalt not
make unto thee any graven image». The Director warns us that any «graven image»
turns into a Tyrant or becomes a tool in a hands of unscrupulous people.
In the second part of a film, Andrzej Zulawski addresses
reformism and society by using the Allegory of the Cave (Plato). As Marek
arrives, the inhabitants of civilization have become prisoners, poisoned by false
believes. Marek is welcomed by the inhabitants as the Messiah, who can release
them from the captivity of the Szerns.
While Marek satisfies the paradigm of the «Cave», he
is worshipped. Nevertheless, Marek is rejected and crucified as Jesus Christ,
after he breaks the paradigm and tries to show a light to the prisoners. Marek
is crucified exactly in a moment, when he starts truly believing that he is the
Messiah. The Marek story parallels the story of the 1960-1970 Eastern Europe,
when the reform movement was crushed by within forces in the Communist parties.
Apart from politics and religion, «On the Silver Globe»
is also an homage to the bad actors. In 1998, Andrzej Zulawski gave an
interview to Eyeball Magazine, where he said: «In Paris you have 10,000 people
who call themselves «professional actors». The difficult thing is to pick the
real ones». Andrzej Zulawski wrote a quote to a local man, which illustrates
his attitude to this 10,000: «Actor is a victory of ugliness over natural
beauty».
If you judge the film from this point of view, the astronauts
and locals are those 10,000. The only true actor was Jerzy, but he gave up and
become an idol – the Old Man. The other characters are bad actors who are
trying to play people, explorers of prophets. Also a lot of dialogues in the
film concern acting or pursuit of truth though acting.
It is sad that «On the Silver Globe» was released unfinished,
but it is still strong and multi-layered piece of art, which gives you a lot of
questions and challenges to find answers yourself. If you’re not frightened by
bad picture and translation, rough editing and director’s commentaries or you’re
an admirer of Zulawski, then don’t miss this film.
