Visitors from the Galaxy

L’un des films les plus sous-évalués et les plus spéciaux du cinéma tchécoslovaque qu’il m’ait été donné de voir. Clairement, Visitors from the Galaxy est une épopée très bizarre et difficile à classer qui opère sur des façons variées et non habituelles d’aborder le genre de la comédie. De scènes très grand public avec des blondes indisciplinées d’une autre planète, on passe brusquement à un épisode lascif avec une procession de nus et, enfin, on a des scènes relativement hystériques avec un monstre cosmique déchaîné qui arrache des têtes et crache du feu. Un conte enjoué qui ne sera pas du goût de tout le monde. [FOD 2020] (11/03/2020)

In terms of its formal execution (and the crazy script, too, Macourek must have been on mushrooms), it was a rather unique affair in the history of Czechoslovak cinema at the time. After all, in what other film of that era of politically minded cinema, when nudity was still relegated to the realm of very subtle shots and graphic violence was almost taboo, could you see a film with crowds of people walking around with undisguised nudity and with brutally severed heads in plates of soup. And all of this, please, was shown as part of the then Workers' Film Festival. Had this film been re-released years later (it has never been shown on TV) so today's audiences could become more familiar with it, it would be a minor cult classic today. The only minor problem for me is how to actually rate such an obscure affair with muddled direction in a meaningful way, which is why I choose a cautious two stars. (24/11/2005)

I can understand why the idea for this weirdness made its way to Miloš Macourek - a story about a writer who has the ability to materialize his own ideas and desires is a beautiful basis for a wry comedy. Unfortunately, this time, nobody wanted anything funny out of Macourek, and that's how it turned out. The serious sci-fi tone and pathos just don't go together with the bearded father that breastfeeds a baby with breasts that the baby enchanted for him, and out of respect for Jan Švankmajer, I prefer to completely forget about the monster. (14/10/2020)

My theory is that the director Vukotić deliberately shot material that left him free to go in any genre direction afterwards with only minimal editing as the situation developed. So in the film we can find the ideal basis for family science fiction, dreamy manchild, absurdist comedy, pure avant-garde, and soft porn. But somehow it didn't work out after that, apparently he lost interest in the film, so he just bolted it all together and dropped the mic. If this work is ever found by a real alien civilization, it will cook their brains. (09/03/2020)