The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, but the details are hazy and very secret. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. When he also encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years, he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence.
A masterpiece from 1970, when Andrey Tarkovskiy, Stanislav Lem’s Solaris, was blown away and confined to us, provided the main idea remained constant. Although research on a space base on the planet Solaris is the main topic, it is not possible to avoid the “:(” response as the film progresses. The performances of Russian actors that no one will recognize are amazingly good.
Tarkovski’s work, which has been highly emphasized, is seen as Russia’s response to Kubrick’s 2001 in some places. However, it is generally an independent study. Even though it is a novel adaptation, it can be said that it has kept its originality.
Solaris (Russian: Солярис) is a 1972 Soviet science fiction art film based on Stanisław Lem’s novel of the same name published in 1961. The film was co-written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled because the skeleton crew of three scientists have fallen into separate emotional crises. Psychologist Kris Kelvin travels to the Solaris space station to evaluate the situation only to encounter the same mysterious phenomena as the others.
In loyalty to the novel’s complex and slow-paced narrative, Tarkovsky wanted to bring a new emotional and intellectual depth to the genre, viewing most of western science fiction as shallow. The ideas Tarkovsky tried to express in this film are further developed in Stalker (1979).
Solaris stars Natalya Bondarchuk (Hari), Donatas Banionis (Kris Kelvin), Jüri Järvet (Dr. Snaut), Vladislav Dvorzhetsky (Henri Berton), Nikolai Grinko (Kris Kelvin’s Father), Olga Barnet (Kris Kelvin’s Mother), Anatoli Solonitsyn (Dr. Sartorius), and Sos Sargsyan (Dr. Gibarian); the music is by Johann Sebastian Bach and Eduard Artemyev. It won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury and the FIPRESCI prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. The film is often cited as one of the greatest science fiction films in the history of cinema.
Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Olga Barnet, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, Nikolai Grinko, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Tamara Ogorodnikova, Bagrat Oganesyan, Yulian Semyonov
Screenplay by: Fridrikh Gorenshtein, Andrei Tarkovsky
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Vadim Yusov
Film Editing by: Lyudmila Feyginova, Nina Marcus
Costume Design by: Nelli Fomina
Set Decoration by: S. Gavrilov, Art Direction by:
Music by: Eduard Artemev
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Magna
Release Date: November 5, 1972
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