Solyaris (1972)

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Stanislaw Lem (novel)
Fridrikh Gorenshtein (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 March 1972 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence...

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | Psychologist | Ocean | Space Station | Hallucination

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Natalya Bondarchuk	...	Hari
Donatas Banionis	...	Kris Kelvin
Jüri Järvet	...	Dr. Snaut
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky	...	Henri Berton
Nikolai Grinko	...	Kelvin's Father
Anatoli Solonitsyn	...	Dr. Sartorius
Sos Sargsyan	...	Dr. Gibarian (as S. Sarkisyan)
Olga Barnet	...	Kelvin's Mother (as O. Barnet)
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Aunt Anna
Georgi Tejkh	...	Prof. Messenger (as G. Tejkh)
Yulian Semyonov	...	Chairman at Scientific Conference (as Yu. Semyonov)
Olga Kizilova	...	Gibarian's Guest (as O. Kizilova)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vitalik Kerdimun		(as V. Kerdimun)
Tatyana Malykh
Aleksandr Misharin		(as A. Misharin)
Bagrat Oganesyan		(as B. Oganesyan)
V. Statsinsky
Valentina Sumenova		(as V. Sumenova)

Also Known As:

Solaris (UK) (USA)
Солярис (Soviet Union: Russian title)

Runtime:

165 min | Italy:115 min (first release)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

German | Russian

Color:

Black and White | Color (Sovcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-G (cable rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | South Korea:15 | UK:A (original rating) | Hong Kong:I | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Akasaka, Minato, Japan

Company:

Creative Unit of Writers & Cinema Workers

Trivia:

Two character's names vary a great deal in the different versions of this story. The female character is known as "Rhea" in the novel, "Hari/Khari" in the subtitles and Russian dialogue, "Carrie" in the English dubbing, and "Rheya" in Steven Soderbergh's remake. The Doctor is known as "Snow" in the English translation of the novel and Soderbergh version, "Snaut" in the subtitles and Russian dialogue, and "Stroud/Strowd" in the English dub.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Kris is standing in the rain near the beginning of the film the camera tilts down to the table to show a coffee cup and various other items. The cut to the next shot of Kris shows him to have moved (which seems reasonable as a small amount of time has elapsed) but all the items on the table are now in a different configuration.

Quotes:

Hari: Did you ever think of me?
Kris Kelvin: Only when I was sad.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Silent Hill 2 (2001) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

The magic of not knowing where we're going....

Like the majority of reviewers here, I rate this film as one of the most profound viewing experiences I can remember. While the IMDb guidelines recommend avoiding reference to specific reviews of Solaris within this section, I strongly believe that there is much to be learnt about this movie by evaluating those reviews as a whole.

This is clearly either a love or a hate movie. Those who love it describe in detail its effect on them, the feelings it evokes, its significance and the depth of its philosophical enquiry. Those who hate it largely describe it as too slow-paced; boring.

What matters to me about this film which I first watched as mesmerised 15 year old is that it is almost entirely the antithesis of Classical Hollywood cinema. It came from behind the Iron Curtain (that dark place whose strange and hidden 'otherness' has, like the plot of any modern movie, now also been laid wide open by capitalist 'democracy'). Its actors were unknown - more like real people than the celebrities the West populates its movies with. Its pace was slow, mesmeric, hypnotic and atmospheric. It was completely free of the kind of 'good triumphs over evil' motif that riddles Hollywood film-making, where 'good' is white-ness, wealth, youth, Westernness and so on.

The pleasure of Solaris was that I didn't know what I was watching. I didn't know who I was watching. I didn't know the culture it reflected and - most importantly - I didn't know what was going to happen.

Perhaps its only in re-watching the 1971 Solaris that it becomes apparent to me that somewhere along the way we have been stripped of the right to not know; robbed of the true narrative thrill of being led into the dark, magical forest of the unknown.