On the Comet

  • Czechoslovakia Na kometě

Plots(1)

Lieutenant Servadac, a member of the French garrison in an African colony, is intrigued during his walk by a portrait of a beautiful girl in the marketplace. While delineating the seashore, Servadac falls into the sea. He cannot swim but luckily he is saved by Angelica, a girl as like as two peas to the girl from the portrait, who has just managed to escape a group of kidnappers from a steamboat. An unprecedented phenomenon appears in the sky - a second sun, which is in fact a comet. Servadac takes Angelica to the citadel, where Colonel Picard has also invited the Spanish consul, unaware that the consul has been conspiring with the sheikh and the natives to prepare a rebellion against the French. The consul's infernal machine fails at the very moment when the comet passes the Earth and pulls with it part of the African continent, including the French colony. Servadac finds out that the comet is heading to Mars, into which it is most probably going to crash. The approach of death changes the behaviour of people. Servadac and Angelica declare their love to each other, enemies become friends, the natives refuse to fight. Servadac's calculations, however, are mistaken, and as soon as Servadac reveals that there is no threat, everything returns to the beaten track - the consul again begins to plot to seize the African territory with the sheikh. The revengeful brothers take Angelica to Sicily on a fishing boat. Servadac jumps into the sea to follow them. On the seashore, batman Ben wakes up his master, who is holding the portrait of the beautiful Angelica in his hand. (official distributor synopsis)

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Reviews (2)

D.Moore 

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English Purely objectively, this may be one of Karel Zeman's weaker films. Plot-wise, it may be a bit lacking. Maybe not as interesting. The laudable anti-war idea may be mired in confused bouncing back and forth. And Emil Horváth, Jr. may owe his charisma mainly to the dubbing of Jan Tříska, because otherwise he is quite wooden. Perhaps, perhaps. But what does it all matter when On the Comet is still such a beautiful film and a completely dreamy, almost touching fantasy. ()

kaylin 

all reviews of this user

English "The Journey to the Beginning of Time" is such a unique film for me that no other film by Karel Zeman has surpassed it. However, that definitely doesn't mean that his other films are not great. They are, and "On the Comet" is a proof of that. Technically captivating, with a beautifully naive storyline and a message that may sound a bit silly today, but that doesn't change the fact that it is true. ()

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