The new documentary by Georges Combe, author of “The Undergrounds of Time” (on the underground passages of the Croix Rousse, in Lyon) or “The Alchemical Journey” opens with this sentence pronounced by the author: “I have always dreamed of evening a UFO”. An observation after editing the film, on which he will not return, since at several moments of the film he will reiterate his frustration at not having been able to witness a phenomenon himself. And as much to say it right away, “the UFO time“does not endeavor to detect any reality or real explanations, but to dissect the myths around them, in the manner of a philosophical reflection on what these so-called irrational phenomena bring to humanity, however easily linked to observations, testimonies, and various studies.
For this, he carries out a whole series of interviews, which he first places in a historical logic relating various appearances (Tehran in 1976, Brussels in the 80s, a phenomenon above a missile silo in 1969, etc.) or phases of study of phenomena (creation of the MUFON or Mutual UFO Network in the USA in 69, implementation of SETI programs or scientific projects aimed at detecting the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations, etc.). The first witness is also a former director of GEIPAN (“Group for studies and information on unidentified aerospace phenomena”, which is a service of the French National Center for Space Studies). Then will come an author, a psychologist, a philosopher, especially in the second part of the film, which is more complex and more confusing.
The first part of the film intrigues and turns out to be somewhat hypnotic, not really trying to explain the phenomena, but being more interested in the representation that is made of them. The Extra-Terrestrials then become an “easy solution” for what is incomprehensible, being able to be thought of only in the image of man and therefore represented as such, in sorts of derivatives. The synthetic images fortunately break the repetitive monotony of the skies and clouds (very numerous during the 1h52 of film) accompanied by silhouettes which observe, and make it possible to make the link with the representation made in the cinema of these phenomena (evolving over time and human technology: a cigar, a triangle…) as possible aliens. Disturbing when it evokes the sky as a potential screen, the room being the earth with its human spectators, the film nevertheless accepts the testimonies without really questioning them, and yet without taking a position on the reality of all this. The hypotheses are linked together in the second part, resounding like a series of information mixing biology, computers, the nature of myths, abductions, clairvoyance, nano-technology, fear of the apocalypse, reactions of the brain according to the times of the day … all in a reasoning that is difficult to follow, which ultimately questions the possibility of rebuilding links between science and spirituality or philosophy, in the face of these phenomena “that we do not understand”.