IKARIE XB-1 (1963)
d: Jindrich Polak

I've been waiting almost 40 years to see IKARIE XB-1, having read about it in Carlos Clarens' An Illustrated History Of The Horror Film and John Baxter's Science Fiction In The Cinema when I was a teenager. It's always nice when a film you've waited a very long time to see not only satisfies your curiosity, but also exceeds your expectations.

IKARIE XB-1 is not an action film, nor does it contain a lot of dramatic tension. It's more of a mood piece with humanistic philosphical shadings. The mood is set largely by the expansive, stylish set design and the expressive faces of the performers; the humanism is embodied in the faces and the ruminative musings of the dialogue.

As in FORBIDDEN PLANET, space travel is assumed - there are no "will they succeed in journeying to the stars?" dramatics. Rather, the question is "how will they live and work in space?" It's an advanced theme for filmed SF of the time. I can't think of any previous film to focus so exclusively on the human experience of long-term space travel.