The film "Solaris", by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, is based on the eponymous SF novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. I did not read the novel, but its author criticized this adaptation, and Tarkovski himself considered it his weakest achievement.
Humans have set up a space station in the orbit of a planet with an indication of extraterrestrial intelligence. However, many years of research do not give any concrete results and the mission is on the verge of shutdown. The station was reduced to only three scientists and, when one of them commits suicide, our protagonist is sent to investigate the case and submit a report on which will depend the further fate of the mission Solaris. It turns out that this mysterious intelligence has the ability to read human minds while they sleep and materialize their "dreams".
As with the film "Stalker", the SF premise is here in the service of the basis for the study of character and strong psychological drama, with the SF element being much more prominent. The premise is very interesting, characters are well developed, both through their actions and through excellently written dialogues, the acting is on a level, and the overall atmosphere is mesmerizing, which is greatly contributed by visual and especially sound effects. Although Tarkovsky did not have a high opinion of Kubrick's masterpiece, the atmosphere of "Solaris" reminded me quite a bit of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
As expected from Tarkovsky, the camera, directing, and editing make "Solaris" visually beautiful. But the film contains scenes that last an eternity and, although they look really nice and have a good atmosphere, do not serve any obvious purpose. Neither they contribute to the story, nor to the overall atmosphere or emotion. They are here to be beautiful and to last until exhaustion.
The film opens with the scene of our main character strolling, a beautiful scene in which every frame is an art photograph, and without which the film would lose nothing but four minutes of idling. It is soon followed by a scene of Burton driving in the car. For a full five minutes, we watch him in the car and then road through his eyes and then him again and then road from above... So, in the first half-hour, a third is in the same function as Tolstoy's descriptions on five pages. The film could be easily shortened from almost three to under two hours, without losing a bit of story and atmosphere. We would be deprived only of idling, although very nicely shot, but still only idling, which is only there to be beautiful, and along the way to distract everyone from watching except those most patient artistic souls. I'm not saying that all those scenes should be thrown out, but they could be cut in half and the film should still be beautiful and artistic, without risk of suffocating the audience.
I'm not able to explain what is in question, but I almost unmistakably recognize movies from the seventies. They have that specific taste that I never particularly liked. Also, after the movie "Stalker", I was not optimistic about Tarkovsky's other films. But this one made a really strong impression on me. So much so that, just a few days after watching it in the cinema, I watched it again at home. Except for, in my opinion unnecessary, long idle scenes, "Solaris" is in all other respects a beautiful and enriching film experience.
9/10.
Humans have set up a space station in the orbit of a planet with an indication of extraterrestrial intelligence. However, many years of research do not give any concrete results and the mission is on the verge of shutdown. The station was reduced to only three scientists and, when one of them commits suicide, our protagonist is sent to investigate the case and submit a report on which will depend the further fate of the mission Solaris. It turns out that this mysterious intelligence has the ability to read human minds while they sleep and materialize their "dreams".
As with the film "Stalker", the SF premise is here in the service of the basis for the study of character and strong psychological drama, with the SF element being much more prominent. The premise is very interesting, characters are well developed, both through their actions and through excellently written dialogues, the acting is on a level, and the overall atmosphere is mesmerizing, which is greatly contributed by visual and especially sound effects. Although Tarkovsky did not have a high opinion of Kubrick's masterpiece, the atmosphere of "Solaris" reminded me quite a bit of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
As expected from Tarkovsky, the camera, directing, and editing make "Solaris" visually beautiful. But the film contains scenes that last an eternity and, although they look really nice and have a good atmosphere, do not serve any obvious purpose. Neither they contribute to the story, nor to the overall atmosphere or emotion. They are here to be beautiful and to last until exhaustion.
The film opens with the scene of our main character strolling, a beautiful scene in which every frame is an art photograph, and without which the film would lose nothing but four minutes of idling. It is soon followed by a scene of Burton driving in the car. For a full five minutes, we watch him in the car and then road through his eyes and then him again and then road from above... So, in the first half-hour, a third is in the same function as Tolstoy's descriptions on five pages. The film could be easily shortened from almost three to under two hours, without losing a bit of story and atmosphere. We would be deprived only of idling, although very nicely shot, but still only idling, which is only there to be beautiful, and along the way to distract everyone from watching except those most patient artistic souls. I'm not saying that all those scenes should be thrown out, but they could be cut in half and the film should still be beautiful and artistic, without risk of suffocating the audience.
I'm not able to explain what is in question, but I almost unmistakably recognize movies from the seventies. They have that specific taste that I never particularly liked. Also, after the movie "Stalker", I was not optimistic about Tarkovsky's other films. But this one made a really strong impression on me. So much so that, just a few days after watching it in the cinema, I watched it again at home. Except for, in my opinion unnecessary, long idle scenes, "Solaris" is in all other respects a beautiful and enriching film experience.
9/10.