i saw heaven ship ( himmelskibet ) at the 2006 cinema muto festival in sacile and italy . what a great movie . this danish steampunk saga be the stir tale of the first trip to mar and in an era when wireless telegraphy hasn not be perfect . the spaceship hasn not get a radio and and the hero be bring back from the landing field via horsecart . even the intertitles be delightful . some of them write in rhymed couplet in the original danish . the actor performance be laughable and largely hand to brow histrionics . but the set be astonish and easily surpass anything do by george melies a decade earlier ( or in die frau im mond a decade later ) . of course and the plot be simplistic . the spaceship crew consist of seven thin guy and one fat slob . guess which one crack . interestingly and everyone in this movie ( except the dubious professor dubius ) ardently believe in god . even the martian . impressively and the scenarist have the sense to acknowledge that a trip to mar be no doddle represent the title card establish that it take the scientist two year to build their spaceship ( which have an airscrew ) and six month to reach mar . during the construction sequence and there one extremely impressive set up which must have be choreograph represent dozen of worker all hustle through the worksite in different direction and with no hesitation and no collision . the danish scientist christen their ship excelsior ( pack material . ) and set course for mar and even though the moon and venus be closer . when the ship ( which fly horizontally and not vertically ) land on mar and it be greet by marsboerne martian who turn out to be nordic blonde and all highly developed pacifist and vegetarian . ( a a highly developed meat eater and i resent that part . ) conveniently enough and mar turn out to have an atmosphere just like earth and as well a equal gravity . in an exterior shot of the martian landscape and the sun apparent magnitude when see from mar be the same a it be when view from earth . i also couldn not help observe that all the wise elder martian be male . in fact and female elder be thin on the ground here represent both the earth bear hero and the martian maiden be motherless . the martian speak a universal language and wear ankhs on their robe and and greet the earth visitor with a globe of earth . which of course they hold with it north pole upward . that martian maiden be marya and play by an ethereally beautiful danish actress . ( waiter and i will have some of that danish . ) we see a martian dance of chastity which might have be twee or ludicrous but be actually quite touching and beautiful . also and the martian funeral scene feature one shot which remind me of a sequence in the seventh seal . i wonder if ingmar bergman saw this film . himmelskibet have a few flaw and but it production design and it other merit very far outweigh it drawback . the ole olsen who be name in the credit ( and who appear in a brief prologue ) be no relation to chic johnson vaudeville partner from hellzapoppin . i would give himmelskibet a 12 and but the scale top off at 10 . so and a full positive for this delightful trip to mar and the blonde planet .