Solaris - Criterion Collection
by Andrei Tarkovsky
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DVD details
Actor: Donatas Banionis, J?ri J?rvet, Natalya Bondarchuk, Nikolai Grinko, Vladislav DvorzhetskyDirector: Andrei Tarkovsky
Brand: Solaris
Cinematographer: Vadim Yusov
Writer: Andrei Tarkovsky
Editor: Lyudmila Feiginova
Editor: Nina Marcus
Producer: Viacheslav Tarasov
Writer: Fridrikh Gorenshtein
Writer: Stanislaw Lem
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Russian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 165 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-11-26
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Solaris - Criterion Collection
DVD Review: Deeper than the deepest sea...
Summary: 5 Stars
When one watches the 2002 remake of the Russian epic `Solyaris' they may not necessarily see how this film could have played heavy influence in the creation of a lot of modern science fiction films, but when you watch this '72 art-house gem you can easily see how films such as `Sphere' (adapted from Michael Crichton's novel of the same name), `Event Horizon' and even 2001's extraordinary `A.I.' have drank from the sea of `Solyaris'.
I have not seen much Tarkovsky, but I am intrigued, and both films that I have seen (`Solyaris' and `Ivanovo Detstvo') are truly outstanding feats of cinema. Adapted from the novel written by Stanislaw Lem, `Solyaris' is a film about strange occurrences on a spacecraft located near an alien sea. Kris Kelvin is a psychiatrist sent to investigate a mission, interviewing the remaining three men on a spacecraft and determining whether or not the mission should be canceled. When he arrives he finds that one of the men, a former friend, has committed suicide and the other two men are slowly going insane. The reason behind this insanity is the sea itself, which causes your dreams to take physical form. This happens for Kris as well, reuniting him with his dead wife, Hari.
The film is not really a film about aliens or space.
There is a moment towards the end of `Solyaris' where Kris says that without mystery there is no truth. You really need to keep with that train of thought in order to find the truth inside of this film, for it is laced with so much mystery it becomes very confusing to one who is looking for any shred of certainty or clarification. You have to embrace the films mystery in order to appreciate the message it is trying to convey. I have made statements before, in other reviews, about the importance of embracing one's subjective view of art. `Solyaris' is the perfect example of a film with no clear meaning other than the provoking of ones intellect. This film begs you to examine, dissect and prod each scene until you find YOUR truth within the films three hours.
For me, this film is all about our desire for familiarity and the fear of change.
If you notice, when Kris arrives on the space station he is rather skeptical, and after his first encounter with the resurrected Hari he is quick to overreact and destroy her, only to have her return. After spending time with her he decides that he cannot let her go, and even refers to her as `his wife' and treats her as if she were not a mere fragment of his imagination. She is real to him and his mind will not let him comprehend the fact that she is not `real'. This deliberate denial shows that Kris is not ready to move on and face the facts that his life is different. It also shows an innate desire to rectify his past mistakes. When he relays the way in which his wife died you can see an almost guilt ridden hesitation, as if he is not willing to accept that she is really dead and is hoping her sudden return marks a chance for him to `do things right' this time. The other men on the craft are also wrapped up in their own minds, even if their situations are not fully fleshed out. It is obvious that as much as they want to leave, they don't want to leave for fear of losing all that they are experiencing. They acknowledge it is wrong, but they are unwilling to do anything about it.
The films final frame is a haunting realization that this entire film may have been nothing more than a mere illusion.
Supposedly the novel's author, Stanislaw Lem, was not impressed with the direction taken on this film, and especially not the film presented to us in 2002 (which, in my opinion too, missed the mark by relying too heavily on the romantic notions of the story). I have not read his novel so I cannot directly quote on how closely related the two are, but I can say that what Tarkovsky does here is phenomenal and truly inspiring. Some have compared this to Kubrick's `2001', but personally I mirror Tarkovsky's thoughts that `2001' was `sterile', especially when compared with this brilliant film that, for me, does everything `2001' attempted to do but couldn't quite accomplish.
And even still, this is Tarkovsky's least favorite of his directed films.
Go figure.
DVD Review: J. S. Bach's film if he be a director...
Summary: 5 Stars
Film's unspeakable granduer and dimension is a definitely a challenge to a close minded. Tarkovsky's movies can barely fit into any category and this one is one such example of a non-genre, or genre-extrapolation. The movie is rather long, reminiscing of Kurosawa - it is a magnificent piece that touches on the depths of once's soul. It has definitely touched mine...
In other reviews, i have seen some comparisons being made to the Space Odessey by Stanely Kubrick. I don't think that the two movies are alike, even though both of them drew their inspirations directly from the cosmos. The last time I glanced at Solaris, believe it or not but it reminded me more of the Star Treck series than the Space Odessey. I don't know whether it was because of the costumes or what, but there you go.
I ve always been disturbed by the protagonist's relationship to the very real gost of his wife, especially by the scene where she tries to kill herself with helium....Let us deal with our gosts now and enter into the life that is harmonious, and is not in odds with the Greatness out there - i think Tarkovsky would like that very much..
p.s. If you like this film you will probably enjoy Tarkovsky's other masterpiece - The Mirror.
DVD Review: Magnificent Galaxy
Summary: 5 Stars
Roll over George Clooney. With respect to Stven Sonaberg's reverential revisit to Solaris, there's a galaxical gap between the two treatment's of Lem's novel. Lem, it has been noted, was disappointed, to put it mildly, with Tarkovsky's film. The book is a mere scaffold for the film. Tarkovsky, himself, wasn't happy with it and admits difficulties with Kelvin, his lead man. But the more I watch it the better it gets, and the more it 'fits' with his discerning view of humanity's search for meaning. I don't regard this it with the same revery as 'Andrei Rubelov', 'Mirror'' or 'Nostalgia'. But it's so superior a cinematic feast to what passes for entertainment,that is, it's engaging as it runs, and reverberates long after. The core philosophical debates, projected subjectivity onto loved objects, the balance of science with art, overcoming and or accepting genetical and environmental conditioning...these will haunt your life. As mentioned recently in another review..I suspect Kustirica alluded to the final scene in this beautiful work in the final scene of his,'Underground'; a film of considerable historical and social scope, but with nothing of Tarkovsky's depth. Note the reference to Rembrandt's, 'Return of the Prodigal Son' in the moving finale.DVD Review: Sci Fi Art Film
Summary: 4 Stars
This film would probably be out of print if it was not selected for the Criterion Edition treatment. They cleaned up the old print as usual and added a whole 'nother disk of extras. You need the commentary to try and understand what is happening in this slow moving and deep analysis of humanity, aliens, the future, bureaucracy and more!
Don't look for special effects in this Russian language film constrained by money and the communist agenda. Look for great camera work and tough acting where emotions flow freely but are controlled and constrained.
This movie will keep you talking for days. Billed as the Russian 2001 at the time, as the commentaries point out, they were trying to make the exact opposite actually.
DVD Review: SOLARIS The ultimate space trip into the inner mind
Summary: 5 Stars
Tarkovsky's SOLARIS got a bit of a resurgance in popularity, due no doubt to the remake of the film with George Clooney. The "Hollywood USA" Solaris, when compared to the "USSR" SOLYARIS, tells more about the contrast between the American way of seeing the world, including cinema, and the Russian Weltanschauung. With Hollywood SOLARIS, you have a very linear plot, lots of emotional development between Chris and his wife, including Gabarian, during the initial earth scenes, wierd plot twists and characters revelations at the space station, and obvious big budget sets, costumes, and effects, all given over to an emotionally unsatisfying ending. It is only with the USSR SOLYARIS, that you recieve ART CINEMA (Grand Jury Award at the Canne).
SOLYARIS gets compaired to 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY all the time. About the only thing they DO have in common, is the idea that space travel occurs in the MIND, as well as the body. The other unity between the two SCIFI masterpieces, are that space travel seems to break apart the psyche of the traveler, who contacts in ANY way alien intelligence. Kubricks 2001 doesnt make as many philosophical discriptions during the film, as SOLARIS does. For me, this is a minor flaw in SOLARIS. Tarkovsky's film ends with this musing, about mankinds purpose, the existence of deity, what it means to be "human", and if it IS possible to return to Earth, after experiencing something as life altering as direct contact with Alien intelligence. Kubrick's film accomplishes the same thing, but silently, more effectively. For the most part, Tarkovsky lets his imagery move the poetic underpining of his films, but he loves to stick in little bits about how mankind is doomed by his greed, and neurotic need to have his (materialistic) dreams all realized. Most people find the beginning of SOLYARIS, at the Dacha, a bit boring, (just like 2001's MONKEY scenes) it helps to set the visual pace of the film, the visual poetry. The long shots of the pond in the beginning of SOLARIS, actually makes sense, if you see how it connects to the end of the film, when the POND becomes just another creation of SOLARIS, itself a larger planetary ocean, set in the ocean of the universe.
Tarkovsky is a poet with imagery, as his father was a poet with words. The one element that always makes me realize the depth of Tarkovsky's work, is the disunity that the critics, and the audience, have over WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Especially in "space ship" type SCIFI, the meaning tends to be very cut and polished. Its only with Kubrick's 2001, made in 1966, that ambiguity seems to enter the genre. It left the genre 6 years later, when Tarkovsky made SOLARIS. Both films are about aliens exploring the human mind, reflecting the "psychedelic" travels of those mind explorers during the 1960s and 70s who used LSD for the same purpose. Therefore, a film where PURE MINDSTUFF, invisible pure being, is one of the central characters, just doesnt seem to want to connect with people today. SOLYARIS, like the MONOLITH, represents humanity's possibilities, their limits, and the concept that REALITY is so much MORE than our preception of REALITY. We make our own realities, and that IS SPACE TRAVEL, of the purest type. This might be why The "HOLLYWOOD" Solaris is more easily digestable. It has no bizarre, circular ending, no low budget sets that need the viewer to invest their own imagination, to make the various roundish rooms on the first SOLARIS turn into a circular space station. The USSR SOLARIS doesnt give you time to consider what might be WRONG with the set logically. Instead, your mind is occupied with intellectual, and emotional concerns. SOLARIS Hollywood style, has it all in place, logical, tight, every hole filled in with the characters, the scenery, and even the CONCEPT of alien intelligence. When ambiguity is removed for rationist reasons, the poetry is removed as well.
The same people that HATE Kubricks 2001, will NOT enjoy the USSR version of SOLARIS. If you dont like to ruminate over the films meaning, by having "breathing space" in the plot, then you wont like the USSR SOLARIS. This is how Tarkovsky makes films. His films use SPACE, for instnace a film shot where NOTHING is happening, or at most, water moves, to allow the viewer to sense a journey, either thru distance, or thru time. (Not unlike the long sections of lights, after Dave enters the Jupiter monolith, and moves thru space and time, for 10 minutes of light shows, that has no plot device, other than MIND TRAVEL is SPACE TRAVEL.) Without all the costly, realistic sets, costumes, etc, its easy to forget that SOLARIS even takes place at a distant planet. Everything looks so EARTHLY, that you forget about the SCIFI theme, and just accept that this altered reality that the people on the SOLARIS Space station experience, is as real as the earthly reality. You accept the delusion, that Chris accepts. Kubrick's 2001 never allows you to forget for a MOMENT, when his film is happening in space, which is the real, and the illusions of the MONOLITH. Maybe that difference is the REAL reason that SOLARIS makes us uncomfortable. Its because it makes us question the very substance of our EARTHLY perception of reality, by the end of the film.
In both films, the main characters become transformed, and overtaken, by the alien intelligence. Both films are a total trip, a trip to the far reaches of the mind. Same destination, different roads. The difference between the two films, is like the difference between cosmonauts and astronauts. In the late 60s and early 70s, that difference was so much greater than it is today. The HOLLYWOOD "SOLARIS", and "2010 The year we make contact", shows how our society today wants it ALL to have a tight, logical ending. No ambiguity, no inner space travel, its all been given over to large budget sets, and big name starts. For the same reason ASTRONAUTS will probibly never land on the moon again, we will never see COSMONAUTS go to the USSR SOLARIS, or ASTRONAUTS enter another monolith. The great age of imagination and exploring inner realities, has been given over to the external, concise reality of COMPUTER GRAPHICS, which give us anything our imagination could EVER produce. (but a machine can do better, or so we believe.) When the imagination becomes superfluous, and ambiguity becomes boring, then its just POPCORN FILMS from here to the edge of the universe.
Description of Solaris - Criterion Collection
Strange transmissions have been received from the 3 remaining residents on the solaris space station. When cosmonaut & psychologist kris kelvin is sent to investigate he experiences the strange phenomena that afflict the solaris crew sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his own consciousness. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 11/26/2002 Run time: 169 minutes Director: Andrei TarkovskyThe Russian answer to 2001, and very nearly as memorable a movie. The legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky made this extremely deliberate science-fiction epic, an adaptation of a novel by Stanislaw Lem. The story follows a cosmonaut (Donatas Banionis) on an eerie trip to a planet where haunting memories can take physical form. Its bare outline makes it sound like a routine space-flight picture, an elongated Twilight Zone episode; but the further into its mysteries we travel, the less familiar anything seems. Even though Tarkovsky's meanings and methods are sometimes mystifying, Solaris has a way of crawling inside your head, especially given the slow pace and general lack of forward momentum. By the time the final images cross the screen, Tarkovsky has gone way beyond SF conventions into a moving, unsettling vision of memory and home. Well worthy of cult status, Solaris is both challenging art-house fare and a whacked-out head trip. --Robert Horton
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