Solaris

After seeing Andrei Tarkovsky's first two masterpieces Ivan's Childhood and Andrei Rubalov, I figured it was time to see his next highly lauded film, Solaris (1972). I can't say that I went in blindly, because I saw Steven Soderbergh's 2002 re-make with George Clooney. And I think it was useful to have sen the two previous films as I could identify some of Tarkovsky's themes such as nature, water, animals, and art (Bruegel this time). This film is an adaptation of a science fiction (a genre considered safe by the Soviet officials) novel by Stanislav Lem, who did not approve of the adaptation. However, the story is more about inner space rather than outer space as Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banoinis), a psychologist, is sent to a space station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane. While there he finds that planet's resident known as the Ocean is creating replicas of people from the crew subconscious to interact with them. In Kris' case the visitor replica is his ex-wife, Kari (Natalya Bondarchuk), who had died 10 years previously. As usual there is great music, cinematography, and Tarkovsky has created an exceptional alien atmosphere. That being said there are points when the philosophical musing become a bit overwhelming and the film feel overlong, but certainly it is more than a worthwhile film.  The Criterion treatment includes:  high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition, audio essay by Andrei Tarkovsky scholars Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, coauthors of The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue, nine deleted and alternate scenes, video interviews with actress Natalya Bondarchuk, cinematographer Vadim Yusov, art director Mikhail Romadin, and composer Eduard Artemyev, excerpt from a documentary about Stanislaw Lem, the author of the film’s source novel, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate and an appreciation by director Akira Kurosawa. Another thought provoking film from a Russian master.