164 - Solaris

[captainofbeef]

DISC ONE:
- New digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions
- Audio essay by Tarkovsky scholars Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, co-authors of The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

DISC TWO:
- Nine deleted and alternate scenes
- Video interviews with lead actress Natalya Bondarchuk, cinematographer Vadim Yusov, art director Mikhail Romadin, and composer Eduard Artemyev
- Documentary excerpt with Solaris author Stanislaw Lem

[captainofbeef]

The best sci-fi film of all time. Hands down, period. Not even Star Wars can top it. The plot and pacing are perfect as are the performances. The ending is one of the best on film. Another one of my favorite films.

[ie]

I had to stop twenty minutes in because of how amazing it was. I just could not go on, and dare I push on? I really enjoyed the beginning, but I mean, could it go downhill?

Slight concerns aside, two things that were epic awesome:

SPOILER: Click to show

The opening shot, with the red leaf floating on water with green seaweed underneath it. Wow.

SPOILER: Click to show

Layer 1. We're watching a movie.

Layer 2. We see the characters gather around, watching a short movie about the events that are going around.

Layer 3!! The people in this short movie watch a clip of what a pilot captured on film.


How often does THAT happen?

That would be like Itchy and Scratchy (layer 2) watching a movie (layer 3) in which someone is reading a comic about fictional super heros (layer 4), and then one of them mentions a fictional show they watched last week (layer 5) in which a character in the show read a further fictional novel with characters (layer 6) that- wow, I can't even compute that.


But what I'm trying to say is, wow.

[captainofbeef]

It DOES NOT go down hill, I repeat DOES NOT GO DOWNHILL. Its a long film, but if you push through it, I believe you will find it to be one of the best films of all time.

[ie]

I'm going to try to push through it now, but thanks for the reassurance.


As of right now, it's sitting in my Top 50. The introduction felt a little too dense for me to instantly give a 10/10 to it, but let's see what I think after I'm done watching it.

[dontdigonswine]

This is the best sci-fi film I've ever seen. It sits at the other end of the spectrum from 2001, wherein it is more of an exploration of the human soul, rather than the universe.

[ie]

I'm two-thirds of the way through Solyaris, track 22 of 34ish, or in other words, I just got past the scene that graces the cover.


It's very dense. There's a lot going on, and there's plenty to think about, especially if you're thinking about how each shot was set up. For example, when we're watching the footage of the interview in the beginning, people walk by the camera. This would happen in real footage, but it would not happen in a staged movie environment where a director would be crazy mad about getting everything perfect.

Visually, very impressive. I couldn't say the same about audio, but perhaps because I was watching it on a different set up, I just didn't have the volume set properly.

I also loved how intelligent all of the dialogue was.

A bit of a tangent, but my ending note for this post, until I finish the movie: If you're a movie director and you expect me to watch a movie that you've directed and think about philosophical ideas, give me something to go with. Give me an conversation where someone says a new and provocative idea, give me imagery that inspires me to think about the correlation between two (a scene in Walkabout comes to mind), give me something.

Otherwise, I'm going to be thinking about something like what I'm going to eat for dinner, what movies I should check out soon, or anything besides the movie and story at hand. I'm glad that this did not happen with Solyaris; there was plenty to think about, plenty of clues showing a very intelligent mind, or group of minds, that worked very hard on the inner workings of this movie, and plenty to get from it.

[dontdigonswine]

Wait until you get to the ending. Some of the last few scenes of dialogue is just one profound philosophical idea after another. Quite a lot for a mind to consume all at once. I really need to watch it again.

[Clark Nova]

this is a movie you have to watch MUCH more than once, just 'cuz there's so much damn stuff to take in, philosophically mainly...whether you consider that a good thing or a bad thing is up in the air, but I can't help but juts marvel at how deep this movie is.

[ie]

Finished!


I agree about the dialogue being really profound, and how you really need time to take it all in, because this is one dense... experience.

SPOILER: Click to show

To me, this scene is an allegory of your usual take-off sequences in science fiction movies, particularly because of all the engine noises that you hear throughout the sequence that don't quite sound like they came from a car. There is a sequence where Kris is in what probably is a space shuttle during his flight from Earth to Solaris, and a deleted scene showed Kris's space shuttle landing on Solaris, but they never show you the whole picture.

SPOILER: Click to show

I also liked how, occasionally, there was just like a scene that was shot in black and white. I didn't really understand why this was done, but it was just something to think of, in of itself: most movies are color-only. Color is the standard. Perhaps this was a way of reminding us about the medium, that color has its advantages and disadvantages, along with black and white.

I give it a 9/10.

[captainofbeef]

What didn't you like about it that would result in a 9 instead of a 10?

[ie]

I give 10/10 to movies that are my absolute favorites, or in other words, in my Top 20 and I give 9/10 to movies that I still really like, and are in my Top 150 or so, but aren't in my Top 20.


In the case of Solyaris, it's just not one of my absolute favorites.
I did really enjoy how actually intelligent the dialogue was and how there was a grand focus on detail. It just felt a little bit too tedious to me, and it wasn't as engaging or stimulating, in my opinion, as I would have liked it to be.

[captainofbeef]

I didn't find the film tedious at all. It was so engaging and beautiful that the three hours just flew by. It just deals with so much on an intellectual level. The loss of a loved one, psychological torture, intelligent life off earth etc etc. I could watch it a hundred times and still not be able to catch everything that is hinted at in the film. There are so many beautiful shots in the film as well, and they are all symbolic for something. I can see how you couldn't see it as stimulating but I can't see how you found the film tedious.

[Evan]

Recently bought this and its one of my top 50 if not 20. The pacing was fast and very complex. I would have to give this a 10.5/10 for being such a good film. It even tops 2001 in my opinion.

[agentknight]

I gave it a 10 billion out of 10 when I saw it so owned I beat you.

>_>

[criterionmaster]

I just watched this film, I am amazed. Easily a 10/10, but... I am interested to know why people like this film better than 2001?

[captainofbeef]

Its is a more personal film than 2001, dealing more with human emotions while 2001 deals more with technology and is colder and more detached.

[criterionmaster]

Well I think that those approaches work for each film. I don’t think the subject matter for 2001 was meant to be personal, it is suppose to be looked at it in a detached way, but then Solaris’ subject matter deals with human emotions, so if it would have been detached and cold it would have been much less powerful. I don't know, I get more excitement and enjoyment out of 2001 I guess. Solaris may have given me too much, especially at the end it seemed like they rattled off a bunch of philosophy, a little too much maybe?

[captainofbeef]

Too much philosophy? Are you saying the film made you think more than you wanted to? 2001 and Solaris are two entirely different films and they do not really deserve to be compared. I personally like Solaris much more, its more beautiful, more personal, and better acted.

[criterionmaster]

No and yes, it is gives you too much to think about in such a short period of time, I couldn't even begin to grasp everything they were saying because of this. I want films to make me think, but it was overpowering. Not saying this as a flaw really, since it will make my re-watches all-the-better. Didn't you think they should have maybe given more time to grasp all this dialogue? Or do you think it should have been thrown out at you like that, all at once? Either way I look forward to a re-watch.

Yeah, I am not sure why they are compared so much, I was just saying that I find 2001 to be slightly better, and wanted to hear some thoughts on why people think Solaris is better. They both approach the films (Tarkovsky and Kubrick) with such different styles that comparing them seems very hard. But really, the more I am thinking about it, there are many similarities, such as the long takes, the shots, the philosophy, etc. But still, they are two different films.

Also, does anyone know if the features are any good (on the Criterion)?

[captainofbeef]

I really like that there is so much given to you at one time, it makes the film so much more satisfying the more you watch it. After three rewatches, its safe to say that it is probably the most mentally stimulating film ever made.

The documentary with Stanislaw Lem is decent, he really didn't like this interpretation of his work, which is why he agreed to the remake. The deleted scenes are pretty good as well.

[Evan]

I liked Solaris more than 2001 because 2001 is a more comercial film. In my opinion, 2001 is easy to understand for the most part and it shows the stereotypical version of the futere. It still is a masterpiece but Solaris is a different view of the future and I enjoy taking time to find out what different things mean in a movie.

[criterionmaster]

That is a bold thing to say, a very bold thing. 2001 commercial? Try showing that to someone who likes Fantastic Four, they would probably shit on it. Maybe “popular” is the word you were looking for, which in that case I would say that popularity isn't a bad thing, a lot of times there are reasons things are called “classics”. I too like finding and watching a more rare film, but that doesn't make it better.

Plus, you have to take into account which film came first, 2001. That was the most realistic (if you can call it that) vision of the future on film to date, now it is easier to make a more realistic film after the fact, but to be the first will always mean something. Not saying Solyaris stole from 2001, just saying.

To call 2001 easy to understand is ballsy thing to say as well. Just because the center story is easy (to an extent), that doesn't mean if you look beyond that you can't find more. And I didn't struggle to figure out Solyaris, I found it to be an easy, pretty straight-forward story, but looking at the philosophy behind the film is what makes it harder to understand, but you can do that for both films.

I don't think it was stereotypical at all, remember, this was made in '68, no one had seen anything like this at all. And that is Kubrick's vision, just because people have copied it since then, and made it become stereotypical doesn't mean much.

Then look at the score to 2001, that, plus what I already said about 2001, pushes it slightly above Solyaris. I can see how someone could like it more, kinda, but still, 2001 just hits me harder I think.

[Evan]

Replying to what Dan said, I did mean Popular not Commercial I just couldn't think of the word at the time. And in my opinion it was the optimistic vision of the future which had been portrayed many times before:Metropolis, Things to come, ect. I was suprised by how gritty the future looked in Solaris. The dirty and unorganized space station was a first for me.
I thought that 2001 was a not as confusing as Solaris. I think that 2001 is a more understandable film that Solaris. For instance a spaceship run by a machine that kills the crew due to the fact that the crew were going to shut him off. Thats relativaly easy to understand. But a Psycologist going to a space station where the ocean manipulates the persons past life, that is complicated. For the exception of the ending of 2001 I understood the film relatively well. Im still trying to figure out certain facts about Solaris.
I dont mean to insult 2001 in any way, I entirely respect Kubrick's vision and 2001 is still one of my favorite films. I think both are some of the best in the sci-fi genre or any genre. I just liked Solaris more than 2001.

[captainofbeef]

^In total agreement with you Evan. Though I still feel that they are unfairly compared, they are totally different films.

[Evan]

They are enirely different films but in greatness they're equal.