Solaris

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Perhaps that should say "First time viewed all the way through in one sitting" Something I and many others before me have struggled to do. The last time I made a conscious effort to get through this film I made it about half an hour into the film watching cars driving around for ten minutes and gave up. I never even made it into space.

I did some research on that driving sequence. It seem even big fans of the film hate that segment, which was filmed in Tokyo a very futuristic looking city to the people of Soviet Russia at the time, but not so much now. Apparently the permission to leave the country to shoot there was procured with a great deal of difficulty so presumably they wanted something to show for their efforts.

Tarkovsfky said it weeded out the dumb people in the audience, which I guess that makes me. It appears he also has a few disparaging remarks about this film, what he considers his least successful film, and about the original book which he thought was n't that great either. He comes across as a bit of an intellectual snob. You can see it in his arbitrary quotes of famous authors and paintings throughout the film. But who cares about that? I would call Peter Greenaway and Michael Hanake intellectual snobs but I like their films. I love Hanake's actually. So how is the actual film?

It is tediously slow. I was in the unfortunate position of having seen the Soderbergh version with George Clooney many times, having enjoyed it immensely, so I knew what to events expect and mainly spent my time waiting for it to hurry up and happen. They are very different beasts though.

The most successful parts for me where the dialogues between Kris and the uhhh, "apparition" of his deceased wife. This relationship was the anchor of the film and all its ideas, I didn't really care about much else. I think it says a lot about humanity that the most humane character was just a manifestations of a memory. Or perhaps it says more about the filmmaker.

I hear people compare this to 2001: A Space Odyssey and I can see why, but they aren't really alike at all except in some arbitrary matters of pace and setting. Whoever told me this film was a visual masterpiece was lying too, they describe amazing images and we as an audience can picture them in our head but they have no means of visualising these fantastic creations on screen. It's really just some dudes talking in a few rooms. And the switching from colour to black and white, sometimes I can tell it's motivation and other times just seems arbitrary. Once again, perhaps I'm just too dumb or wasn't trying hard enough to comprehend.

Yeah, I can appreciate this film more than I actually liked any of it. I find that a lot when I view "classics" that I seem to be universally loved but I never have a great desire to see. The same thing has happened with The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, An American In Paris, Apocalypse Now, Citizen Kane and a heap of others. It makes me feel bad for not liking them but I generally find the impression I have formed about them is rarely challenged by my viewing. I don't know if that's because they are so ingrained in popular culture that I get a fairly comprehensive idea before viewing or because my preconceptions altar my viewing habits.

It's probably more the latter but in any case my idea of this film turned out to be exactly what I though it would be. A 70's Russian sci-fi that's more concerned with some very interesting themes about humanity and character than it is with science or fantasy. And It's very very challenging to sit though (oh screw it, it's boring, there I said it. It's my blog, I'm allowed to.) Perhaps I should find the edited version that's only 130 minutes. There are other Tarkovsfky films I have always wanted to see. Stalker being first and foremost, but I feel like it's going to require a greater effort on my part. You have to plan ahead with these films, set aside a good half a day with no distractions. And you have to be in the right mood too.

Chances are if I want to see this story again, I'll just throw on the Soderbergh film. At least that one has Jeremy Davies in it.