Subject: Retrospective: Solaris (1972)

From: [email-masked] (David M. Arnold)
Date: 21 Mar 1998 05:59:25 GMT

Solaris (1972)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

As a laserdisc collector I have learnt that often it doesn't pay to be 
impatient. Sometimes an out-of-print disc gets re-released and becomes 
readily available again.  Sometimes this is worth waiting for.  This 
has happened to me with "Dune" this past winter, and it just happened 
again with "Solaris".  When I first tried to obtain a copy of "Solaris", 
it was only available from the "Collectible and Out-of-print" department 
of my laserdisc supplier, for $150.00.  As a re-release, it may now be 
had, new and sealed, for much, much less.

Critic Penelope Houston said of "Solaris" that it was "Russia's answer 
to 2001: A Space Odessy".  Completed in 1972, the film comes from an era in 
which it seemed that nearly everything done in the West resulted in (or, 
was the result of) a Russian response.  Like "2001", "Solaris" explores 
the possibilities of Alien  Contact.  Unlike "2001", it does so with a 
deep emphasis on humanity.

The story follows a scientist, Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), who is a 
pecialist in space psychology.  He has been assigned to get to the bottom 
of the peculiar goings-on at the Solaris space station.  Solaris is in orbit 
around an alien planet that is completely covered by an ocean.  The space 
station, designed for an expedition of 80+ people is now inhabited by only 
three.  Kelvin views the film of a deposition made by Burton (Vladislav 
Dvorjetzki), a pilot who flew a rescue mission near the alien ocean's surface.  
The pilot reported seeing strange things, including a giant, animated statue 
of a boy whom he recognized as the dead son of a colleague.  The prevailing 
view of the scientific panel that heard Burton's deposition is that Burton 
was suffering from overwork; there is a minority view that the alien ocean 
may be organic, sentient, and capable of communicating telepathically.

Kelvin wraps up his terrestial affairs in a bittersweet scene with his 
parents, and travels to the Solaris station.  There, he discovers that one 
of the three remaining crew members, his old buddy Gibarian (Sos Sarkisyan) 
has committed suicide after recording a puzzling message intended for Kelvin.  
The remaining two crew members Snouth (Jueri Jaervet) and Sartorius (Anatoli 
Solonitsyn) are secretive and shut themselves up in their labs.  Kelvin 
becomes aware of other presences aboard the station.  Snouth and Sartorius 
explain that the "guests" have been appearing for some time.  Kelvin soon 
meets another guest, in the form of his dead wife Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk) 
who also committed suicide several years earlier.

Kelvin learns that the guests have odd physical characteristics.  He tricks
Hari into entering a transit capsule and blasts her into space.  She 
reappears. He locks her in his quarters.  She escapes by bashing down the 
door, critically lacerating herself in the process.  The wounds heal before 
his eyes.  Despite these oddities, Kelvin believes (or, wants to believe) 
that the soul of his dead wife inhabits the body of the "guest" that has 
taken on her form. Kelvin has received a rare gift:  The opportunity to 
redress some wrongs that resulted in the loss of a loved one.

Eventually, Kelvin comes to the conclusion that the guests are forms 
emanating from the alien ocean.  Whether the ocean is capable of materializing 
matter, or is merely inducing perceptions in the minds of the crew is not 
made clear (I prefer to believe the latter), but the guests are as real to 
the crew as a brick wall and just as hard to ignore.  The crew rig up an 
experiment in which they transmit Kelvin's brain waves to the planet below.  
The experiment nearly kills him, but when he recovers he discovers that 
the "guests" are gone.  And, in a final scene that is beautiful, moving, 
and joyous, the ocean opens up to Kelvin for First Contact on a very 
intimate level.

"Solaris" is based on Stanislaw Lem's novel of the same name.  Like 
the best of speculative fiction, "Solaris" uses fantastic situations 
for observations on mundane human conditions.  After so many years of 
anthropomorphic humanoid  aliens in "Star Wars" and and on "Star Trek", 
it is startling to contemplate what alien intelligence might REALLY be 
like.  The alien life form in "Solaris" is a single, global life form.  
Or, perhaps a global colony with a single intellect.  Or, maybe something 
totally different.  We see the Solaris crew grappling to understand 
this intelligence, we see them consider blasting the  planet with lethal 
radiation (the standard, human knee-jerk reaction to the unknown).  And 
we seem them finally reconcile themselves to it.

Many science-fiction films abandon the human aspect in favor of 
futuristic gadgetry and fantastic settings.  "Solaris" presents the 
deepest view of Humanity of any science-fiction film I have seen.  
Tarkovsky purposely puts the standard sci-fi accoutrements in the 
background to focus on the characters' humanity. And, the interpersonal 
relationships between the characters are more complex, more complete, 
and have more depth of feeling that is standard for the science fiction 
genre.

And, speaking of humanity, the film is a revelation to me on another 
level.  I had grown up with the usual Cold War propaganda about the 
Evil Empire behind the Iron Curtain.  Now, I view this film, and I see 
ordinary people dealing with ordinary human issues of love, death, fear, 
and understanding: This drives home to me how wrong that propaganda was.  
Our government, our System, was preparing us for conflict with the Soviet 
Union using traditional techniques to dehumanize the enemy in our eyes.  
This film reinforces how universal the human condition is, despite 
political boundaries or nationalities.  It's ironic that this film, 
from the peak of the Cold War, can be such a powerful bridge between 
cultures.

Andrei Tarkovsky was a brilliant, visual filmmaker.  His shots are 
composed with layer upon layer of meaning.  "Solaris" features 
Tarkovsky's trademark of switching between color and black-and-white. 
More than one critic has called him a "visual poet".  The scenes of 
the alien ocean are breathtakingly beautiful.  However, anyone expecting 
a science-fiction adventure will be  disappointed.  This film is 
reflective, it is contemplative.  And, the science-fiction setting
is merely a backdrop for a film for which the primary emphasis is 
speculation on deeper human issues.

Image Entertainment's laserdisc of Solaris is letterboxed, in Russian 
with English subtitles.  (This is one foreign-language film I wish had 
been dubbed.  I know enough French and German to pick up dialogue in 
these languages with the help of subtitles, and I enjoyed listening to 
the musical, tonal Vietnamese language in "Scent of Green Papaya".  But, 
the Russian language is inscrutable to me and not all that pretty to 
listen to.  Subtitles miss nuances of dialogue and distract from 
Tarkovsky's wonderful images.)  Image has re-relased the disc in their 
"Lasers for Less" category:  Collectors should be advised to get it 
while they can.

Review copyright (C) 1998 David M. Arnold.  All rights reserved.
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David M. Arnold                            [email-masked]
   
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