Solaris (1971)

A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky (as Andrey Tarkovskiy)

Writers:

Stanislaw Lem (novel) (as Stanislav Lem), Fridrikh Gorenshteyn (screenplay) (as F. Gorenshteyn)

Stars:

Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natalya Bondarchuk	...	Khari
Donatas Banionis	...	Kris Kelvin, psikholog
Jüri Järvet	...	Doktor Snaut, kibernetik (as Yuri Yarvet)
Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy	...	Anri Berton, pilot
Nikolay Grinko	...	Nik Kelvin, otets Krisa Kelvina
Anatoliy Solonitsyn	...	Doktor Sartorius, astrobiolog
Olga Barnet	...	Mat Krisa Kelvina (as O. Barnet)
Vitalik Kerdimun	...	Syn Anri Bertona (as V. Kerdimun)
Olga Kizilova	...	Gostya doktora Gribaryana (as O. Kizilova)
Tatyana Malykh	...	Plemyannitsa Krisa Kelvina (as T. Malykh)
Aleksandr Misharin	...	Shanakhan, predsedatel komissii Anri Bertona (as A. Misharin)
Bagrat Oganesyan	...	Professor Tarkhe (as B. Oganesyan)
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Anna, tetka Krisa Kelvina (as T. Ogorodnikova)
Sos Sargsyan	...	Doktor Gribaryan, fiziolog (as S. Sarkisyan)
Yulian Semyonov	...	Predsedatel nauchnoy konferentsii (as Yu. Semyonov)

Storyline

The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, but the details are hazy and very secret. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. When he also encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years, he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence.

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Plot Keywords:

scientist | space station | ocean | hallucination | apparition | 

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Taglines:

Let us take you with us to Solaris, planet of mystery, embodiment of man's latent conflict with the unknown. Man, face to face with his conscience, and with his past.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian German

Release Date:

26 September 1972 (Czechoslovakia)

Also Known As:

Solaris

Filming Locations:

Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine

Box Office

Budget:

RUR 1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm, Chetvyortoe Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

167 min 115 min (unapproved cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (Eastman Double-X Negative Film) Color (Eastman Color)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It is quite common to hear this movie compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). However, Andrei Tarkovsky had not seen that film before shooting 'Solaris'. When he did get round to seeing '2001', he criticised it for being "sterile".

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Dr. Snaut: This will all end badly.
Kris Kelvin: Well, what do you propose I do?
Dr. Snaut: Nothing.

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Alternate Versions

The Russian state film archive has a longer print that runs about 190 minutes. Deleted scenes from that version including mirror room presented on Criterion DVD

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Connections

Featured in The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006)

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Soundtracks

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Prelude and Fugue in F minor - BWV 881
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (as I. S. Bakh)

User Reviews

A unique experience

It's now been some years since I last watched it. Still, I can't get rid of the impressions of emptiness, absurdity and impossibility to understand (the world, and the human mind) that this movie left into me. It can be violent to your mind, without showing a single violent image (by the way, I often see this movie as a counterpart to Clockwork Orange, even more than to 2001). It can stun you, with ten or twenty minutes of incomprehensible silence. It can deprive you of any certainty in the laws of nature - such as, people only die once - and thus leave you vulnerable and naked.

I know that many friends to whom I've shown this move did not understand it. So I'm not saying you'll like it. But this is possibly the best (non-action) sci-fi movie ever made.

Watch it at night, alone, when everything out of your home is dark, silent, and cold.