Solaris

Composite Score: 85.73

Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhestkiy, Nikolay Grinko, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Olga Barnet, Olga Kizilova, and Sos Sargsyan

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers: Fridrikh Gorenshteyn and Andrei Tarkovsky

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi

MPAA Rating: PG

Box Office: $225,719 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Solaris is Andrei Tarkovsky’s film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem about a psychologist who is sent to the space station orbiting the titular planet to discover what has caused its crew of scientists to devolve into madness/crisis. The film stars Donatas Banionis as its leading man – Kris Kelvin – joined by Natalya Bondarchuk as his deceased wife Hari (or Khari, depending on your subtitles) and Jüri Järvet and Anatoliy Solonitsyn as the current inhabitants of the Solaris space station – Doctors Snaut and Sartorius, respectively. After finding success at Cannes, the film has gone on to be considered one of the greatest (some might even say the greatest) science fiction films ever made, alongside the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Blade Runner in terms of its influence on the genre.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Tarkovsky is one of those directors that you need to almost psych yourself up for whenever you go into his films because of their length, pace, and depth, and Solaris is no exception to that rule. He has crafted a science fiction film that dwells on human existence, love, psychology, and philosophy that has so much to say and takes plenty of time in saying it. Nothing in Tarkovsky’s filmography fits the bill of a casual Saturday afternoon film, but Solaris in particular begs to have your full attention for its entire runtime (2 hours and 47 minutes), and that’s certainly something that’s going to be more easily said than done for some viewers. From its slow start to its psychological second act to its final moments of artistry, discussion, and catharsis, the film moves at a snail’s pace, forcing its audience to fully take in all of its aspects whether they want to or not. This is not an undertaking for the unwilling or unprepared (much like space travel, I suppose), so tread cautiously when you jump in.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                The wealth of conversation, ideas, and emotion wrapped up in Tarkovsky’s Solaris makes it a film that anyone would be lucky to watch. In the contrast between Kris’s childhood home on Earth – colorful, pastoral, flowing, and homey – and the Solaris space station – stark, hard, harsh, empty, sterile – the film starts a conversation about the nature of human exploration and scientific discovery that then gets carried over into the characters and situations of the rest of the film. Even the premise of the film touches on this concept – a psychologist evaluating the merits of continued scientific exploration based on his observations of the station and the scientists there – by interposing humanity in the midst of science, insisting on the inextricable nature of the two and, thereby, the shortcomings of science because it fails to account for the human element. This comes to a head in the “climax” of the film, which ends up being a philosophical discussion between the station’s inhabitants about the nature of exploration and study, suggesting that Humanity doesn’t actually want something new or surprising but rather a reflection of itself or something that it can craft into its reflection. That thematic exploration coupled with the performances of the film’s actors – the subdued and almost static performances by Banionis, Järvet, and Solonitsyn as the humans on the station contrasted with the emotion and desperation of Bondarchuk as the “false” human – gives the audience the beginning of a sense of what Tarkovsky sought to achieve with this film. It’s a bold play to take science fiction and use it to comment on human emotion and philosophy, but it works because of how carefully the film has been executed.

                Andrei Tarkovsky gives his audience plenty to ponder in Solaris, using everything from production design to dialogue to the performances of his actors to portray a truth about humanity and our need to see ourselves in the world and people around us, giving us an All Time Great in the process. Like the director’s other films, this one can be a slog for someone unprepared but will be rewarding for those seeking it out. You can currently stream this film on Max if you’re interested.