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Solaris (1972 film)
Encyclopedia
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation
of the novel Solaris
(1961), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station
orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist
crew have fallen to emotional crises. Psychologist
Kris Kelvin travels
to the Solaris space station, to learn and evaluate the situation—yet soon hallucinates
like the others.
The Polish science fiction
novel by Stanisław Lem is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species. Tarkovsky's adaptation is a “drama of grief
and partial recovery” concentrated upon the thoughts and the conscience
s of the cosmonaut scientists studying an extra-terrestrial (alien) life. The psychologically complex and slow narrative of Solaris has been contrasted to kinetic Western science fiction films, which rely upon fast narrative pace and special effects to communicate character psychology and an imagined future. The ideas which Tarkovsky tried to express in this film are further developed in Stalker
(1979).
The critically successful Solaris features Natalya Bondarchuk
(Hari), Donatas Banionis
(Kris Kelvin), Jüri Järvet
(Dr Snaut), Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
(Henri Burton), Nikolai Grinko
(Kris Kelvin’s Father), Olga Barnet
(Kris Kelvin’s Mother), Anatoli Solonitsyn (Dr Sartorius), and Sos Sargsyan (Dr Gibarian); the music score is by Eduard Artemyev
. At the 1972 Cannes Film Festival
, it won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
, the FIPRESCI prize
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
.
orbiting the remote oceanic
planet Solaris. After decades of study, the scientific mission at the space station has barely progressed in its goal of understanding the planet. To make matters worse, most of the crew has succumbed to a series of emotional crises
. Kelvin is dispatched to evaluate the situation aboard ship and determine whether the venture should continue.
Henri Burton (Vladislav Dvorzhetsky), a former space pilot, visits Kelvin. They watch film footage of Burton's own testimony years before of seeing an over-sized child
on the ocean surface of Solaris while searching for two lost scientists. However, the cameras of his craft recorded only clouds and the flat ocean surface; Burton's report was dismissed as hallucination
s. After failing to convince Kelvin of the truth of his experience, Burton leaves angrily only to later call Kelvin. He explains that he met the child of a scientist lost in that mission, and the child was reminiscent of the one he saw on Solaris.
Before departing Earth for Solaris, Kelvin destroys most of his personal mementos in a bonfire
, noting the volume of keepsakes he has accumulated. In Kelvin's last conversation with his father (Nikolai Grinko), they realize that the father will not live to see Kelvin return. Although he readily accepted the mission, it is a choice that weighs heavily upon Kelvin's conscience.
Upon arrival at the Solaris space station, none of the three remaining scientists meet Kelvin, who finds the disarrayed space station
dangerously neglected. He soon learns that his friend among the scientists, Dr. Gibarian (Sos Sargsyan), has mysteriously died. The two surviving crewmen are unhelpful, and give contradicting and confusing information. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Snaut (Jüri Järvet) warns Kelvin not to overreact if he sees anything “unusual” on board the station. However, Kelvin soon glimpses other people aboard the station. While Kelvin sends news of the chaos on board the station, the oceans of Solaris begin swirling on the planet's surface.
Waking exhausted from a restless sleep, Kelvin finds a woman with him in his quarters despite the barricaded door. To his surprise, it is Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), his late wife who committed suicide some years before. However, she is mysteriously unaware of having committed suicide
on Earth, and she is equally puzzled as to her presence in Kelvin's quarters. Grasping that she is a psychological construct brought on by the mysterious effects of Solaris, he lures her to a spacecraft and launches the illusion of his wife into outer space
. In his haste to be rid of her, he is burned by the rocket
’s blast. Dr. Snaut tends his burns and explains that the “visitors” began appearing after the scientists attracted the attention of Solaris, seemingly a sentient entity.
That evening, Hari reappears in his quarters. This time calm, Kelvin embraces Hari through the night. Later, Kelvin causes her to panic when she discovers the clothes of the first apparition and tries to leave the room. She beats her way through the room’s metal door, severely cutting herself. Kelvin carries her back to his bed, where her injuries heal before his eyes. Dr. Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) calls for a meeting, and Kelvin introduces Hari as his wife, insisting they treat her respectfully. In their symposium
, the scientists begin to understand that Solaris created Hari from Kelvin’s memories of his dead wife. The Hari present among them, though not human, thinks and feels as though she were. Sartorius theorizes the visitors are composed of neutrino
s and that it might be possible to destroy them.
Kelvin shows Hari films of himself and his parents when he was a boy and, later, of his wife. While she is asleep, Snaut proposes beaming Kelvin’s brainwave patterns at Solaris in hopes that it will understand them and stop the disturbing apparitions as communication. However, Sartorius suggests a radical attack of heavy radiation
bombardment. In time, Hari becomes independent and is able to exist beyond Kelvin’s sight. She learns from Sartorius that the original Hari had committed suicide ten years earlier, and Kelvin is forced to tell her the entire story. Distressed, Hari kills herself again by drinking liquid oxygen
, only to painfully, spasmodically resurrect a few minutes later. On the surface of Solaris, the ocean is moving even faster.
In a fevered sleep, Kelvin dreams of his mother and of many Haris walking about his quarters. When he awakens, Hari is gone, and Snaut reads him the good-bye note she wrote him. The note indicates that Hari asked the scientists to kill her. Snaut tells Kelvin that since they broadcast Kelvin’s brainwaves at Solaris, the visitors stopped appearing, and islands began forming on the planet's surface. Kelvin debates whether or not to return to Earth
or to descend to Solaris in hope of reconnecting with everything he has loved and lost.
Again at the shore of the frozen lake, Kelvin finds himself at his father's house. His dog runs to him, and he happily walks towards it. He realizes something is wrong when he sees water is falling inside the house but is unnoticed by his father, who appears in the house. Father and son embrace on the front step of the lakeside house, on an island in the middle of an ocean on Solaris.
novel
Solaris
(1961), Stanisław Lem: firstly, he admired Lem's work. Secondly, he needed work and money, because his previous film, Andrei Rublev (1966) had gone unreleased, and his screenplay, A White, White Day, had been rejected, yet it later was realised as The Mirror
(1975). A film of a novel by Stanisław Lem, a popular and critically respected writer in the USSR
, was a logical commercial and artistic choice. Tarkovsky and Lem collaborated, and remained in communication about the cinematic adaptation of the novel Solaris. With Fridrikh Gorenshtein, Tarkovsky co-wrote the first screenplay in the summer of 1969, two-thirds concerned the Earth marital history of Kris and Hari; Lem and the Mosfilm
committee disliked it. The final screenplay, yielding the shooting script, has little action on Earth, and Kelvin’s marriage to his second wife, Maria, was deleted from the story.
In the literary Solaris, Stanisław Lem describes human science
’s inability to handle an alien
life form, because extra-terrestrial life is beyond human understanding; in the cinematic Solaris, Tarkovsky concentrates upon Kelvin's feelings for his wife, Hari, and the impact of outer space
exploration upon the human condition. Dr. Gibarian’s monologue [from the novel’s sixth chapter] is the highlight of the final library scene, wherein Snaut says, “We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors”. Unlike the novel, which begins with psychologist Kris Kelvin's spaceflight
, and occurs entirely on Solaris, the film shows Kelvin’s visit to the house of his parents, in the country, before leaving Earth for Solaris; the contrast establishes the worlds in which he lives — warm Earth versus a cold space station orbiting the planet Solaris — showing and questioning space exploration’s impact upon the human psyche
.
The Solaris soundtrack
features the chorale prelude for organ, Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639)
, by Johann Sebastian Bach
, and an electronic score
by Eduard Artemyev
, and the set design features paintings by the Old Masters. The interior of the space station
is decorated with full reproductions of the 1565 painting cycle of The Months (The Hunters in the Snow, The Gloomy Day, The Hay Harvest, The Harvesters, and The Return of the Herd), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and details of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
and The Hunters in the Snow
(1565). The scenes of Kelvin kneeling before his father, and the father embracing him allude to The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669), by Rembrandt. The references and allusions are Tarkovsky’s efforts to give the young art of cinema
an historic perspective of centuries, to evoke the viewer’s feeling that cinema is a mature art
.
, as “Hari”, however, after meeting Swedish actress Bibi Andersson
in June 1970, he considered her for the role. Wishing to work with Tarkovsky, Andersson accepted her salary in ruble
s. In the end, Natalya Bondarchuk
was cast as “Hari”. Tarkovsky had met her when they were students at the State Institute of Cinematography; she had introduced Solaris, by Stanisław Lem, to him. Tarkovsky auditioned her in 1970, but did not cast her for being too young, and, instead, recommended her to director Larisa Shepitko
, who cast her in You and I. Half-a-year later, Tarkovsky saw that film, and decided to cast Natalya Bondarchuk as “Hari”.
Tarkovsky cast Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis
as “Kris Kelvin”, the Estonian actor Jüri Järvet
as “Dr. Snaut”, the Russian actor Anatoly Solonitsyn
as “Dr. Sartorius”, the Ukrainian actor Nikolai Grinko
as “Kelvin’s Father”, and Olga Barnet
as “Kelvin’s Mother”. Earlier, the director had worked with Solonitsyn, who had played Andrei Rublev
(1966), and with Nikolai Grinko, who appeared in Andrei Rublev and Ivan's Childhood (1962). Tarkovsky thought Solonitsyn and Grinko, would need extra directorial assistance. After filming was almost completed, Tarkovsky rated actors and performances, so: Bondarchuk, Järvet, Solonitsyn, Banionis, Dvorzhetsky, and Grinko; yet wrote in his diary that “Natalya B. has outshone everybody”.
authorised the cinematic realisation of Solaris, with a length of 4000 metres (13,123 ft), equivalent to a two-hour-twenty-minute running time. The exteriors were photographed
at Zvenigorod
, near Moscow
; the interiors were photographed at the Mosfilm
studios. The scenes of space pilot Burton driving through a city were photographed in Japan, in September and October 1971, at Akasaka
and Iikura in Tokyo
. The shooting began in March 1971, by cinematographer Vadim Yusov
, who also photographed Tarkovky’s previous films. They frequently quarrelled to the degree of afterwards not working together again. The first version of Solaris was completed in December 1971.
The Earth, the sensual source of life, and the sterile space station
orbiting the planet
Solaris, are contrasted with lively images of underwater plants, fire, snow, rain and other natural phenomena. A like contrast appears at story’s end, on Solaris, juxtaposing Kelvin’s winter visit to his father’s house, featuring a frozen pond, surrounded by bare trees, but not covered with snow. The dead scenery contrasts with the earlier, summer pond scenes of underwater plants floating in the water current, and blooming trees. The Solaris ocean was created with acetone, aluminium powder, and dyes. Mikhail Romadin
designed the space station
as old and decrepit, rather than futuristic. The designer and director consulted with scientist
and aerospace
engineer
Lupichev, who lent them a mainframe computer
for set decoration. For some of the sequences, Romadin designed a mirror room, which enabled the cameraman, Yusov, to hide within a mirrored sphere so as to not be seen. Akira Kurosawa
, who was visiting the Mosfilm
studios, expressed that he was impressed with the space station design.
In January 1972 the State Committee for Cinematography requested editorial changes before releasing Solaris, such as a more realistic
film with a clearer image of the future, and deletion of allusions to God
and Christianity
; Tarkovsky successfully resisted such major changes; yet, after some minor edits, Solaris was approved for release in March 1972.
, by Johann Sebastian Bach
, and an electronic score by Eduard Artemyev
. The prelude is the central musical theme of Solaris. Tarkovsky, initially, wanted a musicless film, and asked composer Artemyev to orchestrate the ambient sounds as a musical score. The latter proposed subtly introducing orchestral music. In counterpoint to the classical music
Earth theme, is the fluid electronic music
theme for the planet Solaris. The character of Hari has her own subtheme, a cantus firmus
based upon J. S. Bach’s music featuring Artemyev’s composition atop it; it is heard at Hari’s death and at story’s end.
conflict was the starting point for describing the inner lives of the characters.
In the autobiographical documentary Voyage in Time
(1983), Tarkovsky says he viewed Solaris as an artistic failure because his film did not transcend genre like, he believed, his film Stalker (1979) did due to the required technological
dialogue and special effects. M. Galina in the 1997 article Identifying Fears called this film "one of the biggest events in the Soviet science fiction cinema" and one of the few works that does not seem anachronistic nowadays.
Solaris premiered at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival
and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
. In the USSR, the film premiered in the Mir film theater in Moscow on 5 February 1973. Tarkovsky did not consider the Mir cinema the best projection venue. Despite the film's narrow release in only five film theaters in the USSR, the film nevertheless sold 10.5 million tickets. Unlike the vast majority of commercial and ideological films in the 1970s, "Solaris" was screened in the USSR in limited copies for 15 years without any break, giving it cult status. In the Eastern Bloc
and in the West, Solaris premiered later. In the United States, a version of Solaris that was truncated by 30 minutes premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on 6 October 1976.
A list of "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" compiled by Empire
magazine in 2010 ranked Tarkovsky's Solaris at #68. In 2002, Steven Soderbergh
wrote and directed an American adaptation
of Solaris, which starred George Clooney
.
Salman Rushdie calls Solaris "a sci-fi masterpiece", and has urged that "This exploration of the unreliability of reality and the power of the human unconscious, this great examination of the limits of rationalism and the perverse power of even the most ill-fated love, needs to be seen as widely as possible before it's transformed by Steven Soderbergh and James Cameron
into what they ludicrously threaten will be 2001 meets Last Tango in Paris
.' What, sex in space with floating butter? Tarkovsky must be turning over in his grave."
Nimród Antal
cites Solaris as one of the influences on the making of his first movie, Kontroll
. Kontroll has many similarities with Solaris, such as the ambiguity of reality, the hallucinatory look, and the score, which also mixes both real instruments and electronic elements.
released Solaris on Blu-ray Disc
. The most noticeable difference from the previous 2002 Criterion DVD release was that the blue and white tinted monochrome scenes from the film were restored.
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the novel Solaris
Solaris (novel)
Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....
(1961), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
crew have fallen to emotional crises. Psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Kris Kelvin travels
Space travel
Space travel can refer to:*Spaceflight, the use of space technology to fly a spacecraft into and through outer space, which may include:*Spacefaring, capability of and activity in the art of spaceborn travel.*Human spaceflight...
to the Solaris space station, to learn and evaluate the situation—yet soon hallucinates
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
like the others.
The Polish science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by Stanisław Lem is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species. Tarkovsky's adaptation is a “drama of grief
Grief
Grief is a multi-faceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something to which a bond was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions...
and partial recovery” concentrated upon the thoughts and the conscience
Conscience
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgement may derive from values or norms...
s of the cosmonaut scientists studying an extra-terrestrial (alien) life. The psychologically complex and slow narrative of Solaris has been contrasted to kinetic Western science fiction films, which rely upon fast narrative pace and special effects to communicate character psychology and an imagined future. The ideas which Tarkovsky tried to express in this film are further developed in Stalker
Stalker (film)
Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
(1979).
The critically successful Solaris features Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Sergeyevna Bondarchuk is a Soviet and Russian actress and film director, best known for her appearance in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris as "Hari". She is the daughter of the Ukrainian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and the Russian actress Inna Makarova...
(Hari), Donatas Banionis
Donatas Banionis
Donatas Banionis is a Lithuanian and Soviet actor. He is best known in the West for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin....
(Kris Kelvin), Jüri Järvet
Jüri Järvet
Jüri Järvet was an Estonian actor. His name sometimes appears as Yuri Yevgenyevich Yarvet, an incorrect back-transliteration from the Russian transliteration . His birthname was Georgi Kuznetsov, and he took the Estonian form in 1938.Järvet is best known in the West for the role of Dr...
(Dr Snaut), Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky was a Soviet film actor. He appeared in eighteen films between 1970 and 1978Dvorzhetsky was born in Omsk. In 1955 he entered the Omsk military medical school. In 1959 he started active service in the Soviet Army at Sakhalin Island as senior feldsher of the regiment...
(Henri Burton), Nikolai Grinko
Nikolai Grinko
Nikolai Grigoryevich Grinko or Mykola Hryhorovych Hrynko , was a Soviet/Ukrainian actor.He is well known for his roles in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, including: Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rubliov, Solaris, Mirror, and Stalker. He starred in the 1981 film Teheran 43.-External links:...
(Kris Kelvin’s Father), Olga Barnet
Olga Barnet
Olga Borisovna Barnet is a Russian actress who works at the Moscow Art Theatre. The daughter of director Boris Barnet and actress Alla Kazanskaya, she made her film debut as Mother in Andrey Tarkovsky's Solaris ....
(Kris Kelvin’s Mother), Anatoli Solonitsyn (Dr Sartorius), and Sos Sargsyan (Dr Gibarian); the music score is by Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Nikolaevich Artemyev is a Russian composer of electronic music and film scores. Outside of Russia he is mostly known for his film scores from films such as Solaris, Siberiade, Stalker or Burnt by the Sun.-Biography:...
. At the 1972 Cannes Film Festival
1972 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Joseph Losey *Bibi Andersson *Georges Auric *Erskine Caldwell *Mark Donskoi *Miloš Forman *Giorgio Papi *Jean Rochereau *Alain Tanner...
, it won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
, the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
.
Plot
Psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) spends his last day on Earth reflecting on his life while walking by a lake near his childhood home where his elderly father still lives. Kelvin is about to embark on an interstellar journey to a space stationSpace station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
orbiting the remote oceanic
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
planet Solaris. After decades of study, the scientific mission at the space station has barely progressed in its goal of understanding the planet. To make matters worse, most of the crew has succumbed to a series of emotional crises
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
. Kelvin is dispatched to evaluate the situation aboard ship and determine whether the venture should continue.
Henri Burton (Vladislav Dvorzhetsky), a former space pilot, visits Kelvin. They watch film footage of Burton's own testimony years before of seeing an over-sized child
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
on the ocean surface of Solaris while searching for two lost scientists. However, the cameras of his craft recorded only clouds and the flat ocean surface; Burton's report was dismissed as hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s. After failing to convince Kelvin of the truth of his experience, Burton leaves angrily only to later call Kelvin. He explains that he met the child of a scientist lost in that mission, and the child was reminiscent of the one he saw on Solaris.
Before departing Earth for Solaris, Kelvin destroys most of his personal mementos in a bonfire
Bonfire
A bonfire is a controlled outdoor fire used for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration. Celebratory bonfires are typically designed to burn quickly and may be very large...
, noting the volume of keepsakes he has accumulated. In Kelvin's last conversation with his father (Nikolai Grinko), they realize that the father will not live to see Kelvin return. Although he readily accepted the mission, it is a choice that weighs heavily upon Kelvin's conscience.
Upon arrival at the Solaris space station, none of the three remaining scientists meet Kelvin, who finds the disarrayed space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
dangerously neglected. He soon learns that his friend among the scientists, Dr. Gibarian (Sos Sargsyan), has mysteriously died. The two surviving crewmen are unhelpful, and give contradicting and confusing information. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Snaut (Jüri Järvet) warns Kelvin not to overreact if he sees anything “unusual” on board the station. However, Kelvin soon glimpses other people aboard the station. While Kelvin sends news of the chaos on board the station, the oceans of Solaris begin swirling on the planet's surface.
Waking exhausted from a restless sleep, Kelvin finds a woman with him in his quarters despite the barricaded door. To his surprise, it is Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), his late wife who committed suicide some years before. However, she is mysteriously unaware of having committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on Earth, and she is equally puzzled as to her presence in Kelvin's quarters. Grasping that she is a psychological construct brought on by the mysterious effects of Solaris, he lures her to a spacecraft and launches the illusion of his wife into outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
. In his haste to be rid of her, he is burned by the rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
’s blast. Dr. Snaut tends his burns and explains that the “visitors” began appearing after the scientists attracted the attention of Solaris, seemingly a sentient entity.
That evening, Hari reappears in his quarters. This time calm, Kelvin embraces Hari through the night. Later, Kelvin causes her to panic when she discovers the clothes of the first apparition and tries to leave the room. She beats her way through the room’s metal door, severely cutting herself. Kelvin carries her back to his bed, where her injuries heal before his eyes. Dr. Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) calls for a meeting, and Kelvin introduces Hari as his wife, insisting they treat her respectfully. In their symposium
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
, the scientists begin to understand that Solaris created Hari from Kelvin’s memories of his dead wife. The Hari present among them, though not human, thinks and feels as though she were. Sartorius theorizes the visitors are composed of neutrino
Neutrino
A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
s and that it might be possible to destroy them.
Kelvin shows Hari films of himself and his parents when he was a boy and, later, of his wife. While she is asleep, Snaut proposes beaming Kelvin’s brainwave patterns at Solaris in hopes that it will understand them and stop the disturbing apparitions as communication. However, Sartorius suggests a radical attack of heavy radiation
Radiation
In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
bombardment. In time, Hari becomes independent and is able to exist beyond Kelvin’s sight. She learns from Sartorius that the original Hari had committed suicide ten years earlier, and Kelvin is forced to tell her the entire story. Distressed, Hari kills herself again by drinking liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen — abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries — is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen.-Physical properties:...
, only to painfully, spasmodically resurrect a few minutes later. On the surface of Solaris, the ocean is moving even faster.
In a fevered sleep, Kelvin dreams of his mother and of many Haris walking about his quarters. When he awakens, Hari is gone, and Snaut reads him the good-bye note she wrote him. The note indicates that Hari asked the scientists to kill her. Snaut tells Kelvin that since they broadcast Kelvin’s brainwaves at Solaris, the visitors stopped appearing, and islands began forming on the planet's surface. Kelvin debates whether or not to return to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
or to descend to Solaris in hope of reconnecting with everything he has loved and lost.
Again at the shore of the frozen lake, Kelvin finds himself at his father's house. His dog runs to him, and he happily walks towards it. He realizes something is wrong when he sees water is falling inside the house but is unnoticed by his father, who appears in the house. Father and son embrace on the front step of the lakeside house, on an island in the middle of an ocean on Solaris.
Writing
In 1968, the director Andrei Tarkovsky had two motives for cinematically adapting the Polish science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Solaris
Solaris (novel)
Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....
(1961), Stanisław Lem: firstly, he admired Lem's work. Secondly, he needed work and money, because his previous film, Andrei Rublev (1966) had gone unreleased, and his screenplay, A White, White Day, had been rejected, yet it later was realised as The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
(1975). A film of a novel by Stanisław Lem, a popular and critically respected writer in the USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, was a logical commercial and artistic choice. Tarkovsky and Lem collaborated, and remained in communication about the cinematic adaptation of the novel Solaris. With Fridrikh Gorenshtein, Tarkovsky co-wrote the first screenplay in the summer of 1969, two-thirds concerned the Earth marital history of Kris and Hari; Lem and the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
committee disliked it. The final screenplay, yielding the shooting script, has little action on Earth, and Kelvin’s marriage to his second wife, Maria, was deleted from the story.
In the literary Solaris, Stanisław Lem describes human science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
’s inability to handle an alien
Other
The Other or Constitutive Other is a key concept in continental philosophy; it opposes the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial concept being considered...
life form, because extra-terrestrial life is beyond human understanding; in the cinematic Solaris, Tarkovsky concentrates upon Kelvin's feelings for his wife, Hari, and the impact of outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
exploration upon the human condition. Dr. Gibarian’s monologue [from the novel’s sixth chapter] is the highlight of the final library scene, wherein Snaut says, “We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors”. Unlike the novel, which begins with psychologist Kris Kelvin's spaceflight
Interstellar travel
Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
, and occurs entirely on Solaris, the film shows Kelvin’s visit to the house of his parents, in the country, before leaving Earth for Solaris; the contrast establishes the worlds in which he lives — warm Earth versus a cold space station orbiting the planet Solaris — showing and questioning space exploration’s impact upon the human psyche
Psyche (psychology)
The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
.
The Solaris soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
features the chorale prelude for organ, Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639)
Orgelbüchlein
The Orgelbüchlein was written by Johann Sebastian Bach during the period of 1708–1714, while he was court organist at the ducal court in Weimar...
, by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, and an electronic score
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
by Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Nikolaevich Artemyev is a Russian composer of electronic music and film scores. Outside of Russia he is mostly known for his film scores from films such as Solaris, Siberiade, Stalker or Burnt by the Sun.-Biography:...
, and the set design features paintings by the Old Masters. The interior of the space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
is decorated with full reproductions of the 1565 painting cycle of The Months (The Hunters in the Snow, The Gloomy Day, The Hay Harvest, The Harvesters, and The Return of the Herd), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and details of Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Landscape With The Fall of Icarus
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a painting in oil on canvas long thought to be by Pieter Bruegel, although following technical examinations in 1996, that attribution is regarded as very doubtful, and it is now seen as a good early copy by an unknown artist of Bruegel's original, perhaps...
and The Hunters in the Snow
The Hunters in the Snow
The Hunters in the Snow — also known as The Return of the Hunters — is a celebrated oil on wood painting by Pieter Bruegel. The work is one in a series of six works, five of which still survive, that depict different times of the year. The painting is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches...
(1565). The scenes of Kelvin kneeling before his father, and the father embracing him allude to The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669), by Rembrandt. The references and allusions are Tarkovsky’s efforts to give the young art of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
an historic perspective of centuries, to evoke the viewer’s feeling that cinema is a mature art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
.
The cast
Initially, Tarkovsky wanted his ex-wife, Irma RaushIrma Raush
Irma Yakovlevna Raush is a Russian actress and the first wife of film director Andrei Tarkovsky. She is best known for her role as Durochka in Andrei Rublev and as Ivan's mother in Ivan's Childhood.-Biography:...
, as “Hari”, however, after meeting Swedish actress Bibi Andersson
Bibi Andersson
Bibi Andersson is a Swedish actress.-Early life:Bibi Andersson was born as Berit Elisabeth Andersson in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, the daughter of Karin , a social worker, and Josef Andersson, a businessman...
in June 1970, he considered her for the role. Wishing to work with Tarkovsky, Andersson accepted her salary in ruble
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s. In the end, Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Sergeyevna Bondarchuk is a Soviet and Russian actress and film director, best known for her appearance in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris as "Hari". She is the daughter of the Ukrainian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and the Russian actress Inna Makarova...
was cast as “Hari”. Tarkovsky had met her when they were students at the State Institute of Cinematography; she had introduced Solaris, by Stanisław Lem, to him. Tarkovsky auditioned her in 1970, but did not cast her for being too young, and, instead, recommended her to director Larisa Shepitko
Larisa Shepitko
-Early Life:She went to the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow as a student of Alexander Dovzhenko. She was a student of Dovzhenko's for 18 months until he died in 1956. Shepitko graduated from VGIK in 1963 with her prize winning diploma film Heat, made when she was 22 years old...
, who cast her in You and I. Half-a-year later, Tarkovsky saw that film, and decided to cast Natalya Bondarchuk as “Hari”.
Tarkovsky cast Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis
Donatas Banionis
Donatas Banionis is a Lithuanian and Soviet actor. He is best known in the West for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin....
as “Kris Kelvin”, the Estonian actor Jüri Järvet
Jüri Järvet
Jüri Järvet was an Estonian actor. His name sometimes appears as Yuri Yevgenyevich Yarvet, an incorrect back-transliteration from the Russian transliteration . His birthname was Georgi Kuznetsov, and he took the Estonian form in 1938.Järvet is best known in the West for the role of Dr...
as “Dr. Snaut”, the Russian actor Anatoly Solonitsyn
Anatoly Solonitsyn
Anatoly Alekseyevich Solonitsyn was a Soviet actor.-Work:Solonitsyn is best known in the west for his roles in several of Andrei Tarkovsky's films, including Dr...
as “Dr. Sartorius”, the Ukrainian actor Nikolai Grinko
Nikolai Grinko
Nikolai Grigoryevich Grinko or Mykola Hryhorovych Hrynko , was a Soviet/Ukrainian actor.He is well known for his roles in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, including: Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rubliov, Solaris, Mirror, and Stalker. He starred in the 1981 film Teheran 43.-External links:...
as “Kelvin’s Father”, and Olga Barnet
Olga Barnet
Olga Borisovna Barnet is a Russian actress who works at the Moscow Art Theatre. The daughter of director Boris Barnet and actress Alla Kazanskaya, she made her film debut as Mother in Andrey Tarkovsky's Solaris ....
as “Kelvin’s Mother”. Earlier, the director had worked with Solonitsyn, who had played Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (film)
Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
(1966), and with Nikolai Grinko, who appeared in Andrei Rublev and Ivan's Childhood (1962). Tarkovsky thought Solonitsyn and Grinko, would need extra directorial assistance. After filming was almost completed, Tarkovsky rated actors and performances, so: Bondarchuk, Järvet, Solonitsyn, Banionis, Dvorzhetsky, and Grinko; yet wrote in his diary that “Natalya B. has outshone everybody”.
Filming
In the summer of 1970, the State Committee for CinematographyGoskino
Goskino USSR is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography in the Soviet Union...
authorised the cinematic realisation of Solaris, with a length of 4000 metres (13,123 ft), equivalent to a two-hour-twenty-minute running time. The exteriors were photographed
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
at Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod
Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:The community has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is based either on a personal name or on a hydronym Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia....
, near Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
; the interiors were photographed at the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
studios. The scenes of space pilot Burton driving through a city were photographed in Japan, in September and October 1971, at Akasaka
Akasaka, Tokyo
is a residential and commercial district of Minato, Tokyo, located west of the government center in Nagatachō and north of the Roppongi nightlife district....
and Iikura in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. The shooting began in March 1971, by cinematographer Vadim Yusov
Vadim Yusov
Vadim Ivanovich Yusov is a Soviet and Russian cinematographer and a professor of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, who worked with Andrey Tarkovsky on The Steamroller and the Violin, Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris, and with Georgi Daneliya on I Step Through Moscow...
, who also photographed Tarkovky’s previous films. They frequently quarrelled to the degree of afterwards not working together again. The first version of Solaris was completed in December 1971.
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
orbiting the planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
Solaris, are contrasted with lively images of underwater plants, fire, snow, rain and other natural phenomena. A like contrast appears at story’s end, on Solaris, juxtaposing Kelvin’s winter visit to his father’s house, featuring a frozen pond, surrounded by bare trees, but not covered with snow. The dead scenery contrasts with the earlier, summer pond scenes of underwater plants floating in the water current, and blooming trees. The Solaris ocean was created with acetone, aluminium powder, and dyes. Mikhail Romadin
Mikhail Romadin
Mikhail Nikolayevich Romadin is a Russian painter, books illustrator, movie art designer and theater artist. He graduated from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography...
designed the space station
Space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
as old and decrepit, rather than futuristic. The designer and director consulted with scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
engineer
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
Lupichev, who lent them a mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
for set decoration. For some of the sequences, Romadin designed a mirror room, which enabled the cameraman, Yusov, to hide within a mirrored sphere so as to not be seen. Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, who was visiting the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
studios, expressed that he was impressed with the space station design.
In January 1972 the State Committee for Cinematography requested editorial changes before releasing Solaris, such as a more realistic
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
film with a clearer image of the future, and deletion of allusions to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
; Tarkovsky successfully resisted such major changes; yet, after some minor edits, Solaris was approved for release in March 1972.
Musical score
The soundtrack of Solaris features the chorale prelude for organ, Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639)Orgelbüchlein
The Orgelbüchlein was written by Johann Sebastian Bach during the period of 1708–1714, while he was court organist at the ducal court in Weimar...
, by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, and an electronic score by Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Nikolaevich Artemyev is a Russian composer of electronic music and film scores. Outside of Russia he is mostly known for his film scores from films such as Solaris, Siberiade, Stalker or Burnt by the Sun.-Biography:...
. The prelude is the central musical theme of Solaris. Tarkovsky, initially, wanted a musicless film, and asked composer Artemyev to orchestrate the ambient sounds as a musical score. The latter proposed subtly introducing orchestral music. In counterpoint to the classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
Earth theme, is the fluid electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
theme for the planet Solaris. The character of Hari has her own subtheme, a cantus firmus
Cantus firmus
In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...
based upon J. S. Bach’s music featuring Artemyev’s composition atop it; it is heard at Hari’s death and at story’s end.
Reception and legacy
Although Stanisław Lem worked with Tarkovsky and Fridrikh Gorenshtein in developing the screenplay, Lem maintained that he "never really liked Tarkovsky’s version” of his novel. Tarkovsky wanted a film story based on the novel but artistically independent of its origin. However, Lem opposed any divergence of the screenplay from the novel. Tarkovsky claimed that Lem did not fully appreciate cinema and that he expected the film to merely illustrate the novel without creating an original cinematic piece. Tarkovsky’s film is about the inner lives of its scientists as human beings. Lem’s novel is about the conflicts of man’s condition in nature and the nature of man in the universe. For Tarkovsky, Lem's exposition of that existentialExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
conflict was the starting point for describing the inner lives of the characters.
In the autobiographical documentary Voyage in Time
Voyage in Time
Voyage in Time is a 63-minute feature documentary that documents the travels in Italy of director Andrei Tarkovsky in preparation for the making of his film Nostalghia....
(1983), Tarkovsky says he viewed Solaris as an artistic failure because his film did not transcend genre like, he believed, his film Stalker (1979) did due to the required technological
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
dialogue and special effects. M. Galina in the 1997 article Identifying Fears called this film "one of the biggest events in the Soviet science fiction cinema" and one of the few works that does not seem anachronistic nowadays.
Solaris premiered at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
. In the USSR, the film premiered in the Mir film theater in Moscow on 5 February 1973. Tarkovsky did not consider the Mir cinema the best projection venue. Despite the film's narrow release in only five film theaters in the USSR, the film nevertheless sold 10.5 million tickets. Unlike the vast majority of commercial and ideological films in the 1970s, "Solaris" was screened in the USSR in limited copies for 15 years without any break, giving it cult status. In the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
and in the West, Solaris premiered later. In the United States, a version of Solaris that was truncated by 30 minutes premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on 6 October 1976.
A list of "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" compiled by Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine in 2010 ranked Tarkovsky's Solaris at #68. In 2002, Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
wrote and directed an American adaptation
Solaris (2002 film)
Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone...
of Solaris, which starred George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
.
Salman Rushdie calls Solaris "a sci-fi masterpiece", and has urged that "This exploration of the unreliability of reality and the power of the human unconscious, this great examination of the limits of rationalism and the perverse power of even the most ill-fated love, needs to be seen as widely as possible before it's transformed by Steven Soderbergh and James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
into what they ludicrously threaten will be 2001 meets Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...
.' What, sex in space with floating butter? Tarkovsky must be turning over in his grave."
Nimród Antal
Nimród Antal
Nimród E. Antal is a Hungarian American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Life and career:...
cites Solaris as one of the influences on the making of his first movie, Kontroll
Kontroll
Kontroll is a Hungarian comedy-thriller released to theatres in 2003. Shown internationally, mainly in art house theatres, the film is a darkly comic thriller set in a Hungarian Metro system....
. Kontroll has many similarities with Solaris, such as the ambiguity of reality, the hallucinatory look, and the score, which also mixes both real instruments and electronic elements.
Re-Release
On 24 May 2011, The Criterion CollectionThe Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
released Solaris on Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
. The most noticeable difference from the previous 2002 Criterion DVD release was that the blue and white tinted monochrome scenes from the film were restored.