A ponderous film. Tarkovsky gives plenty of ponder time. Cus there’s never very much plot or action-narrative going on.
Tarkovsky’s beginnings are always visually compelling: here we start with greening and blueing nature, the earth exhaling mists, dandelions puffing off white heads, cuckoos, saturations of wateriness, miracle-seeming rain through sun, horses, humming bees; it all creates the effect of the Earth – planet earth that is – being a living being, a sumptuous sensual marvel.
At 40 minutes we finally lift off into Space; with minimal special effects we get transported into the strange and estranged world of Solaris ocean, somewhere distinctively Not-Earth.
Kris – the psychologist – has been rocketed up to find out what strange goings on have been going on. No space-suit. None of that astronaut malarkey. He turns up in black leather jacket and tight fitting leggings.
On board the space-satelite is Snow – or “Snout” as it’s said in Russian; he’s also wearing a leather jacket (brown) and Sartorious; he’s got the white jacket of a nutty Scientist on; Gilbarian has already topped himself. “This is all meaningless” he’s saying posthumously to video camera; but “it’s not madness, it has to do with conscience”.
The Solaris Ocean – being a thinking substance – has been emanating “disturbances”, materialising thoughts. Kris is soon having in existence his dead wife Hari (she killed herself 10 years ago) “Do you love me?” she’s immediately asking Kris. “Don’t say silly things” he replies. But it’s not silly. Turns out he’s resurrecting,or more precisely, replicating, her into life with (his) love.
“Perhaps we’re here to perceive, for the first time, humans as a purpose for love“ – which seems to be one of the central messages of the film.
“What Man needs is man” seems to be another message. Not explorations into Deep Outer Space “out there” – but the Deep Inner Space within what it is to feel and be an earthly being.
Another message could be: “We need secrets to preserve simple human truths. The secrets of happiness, death, love” In other words there have to be necessary moral limitations to rational scientific “discovery”.
On some critics lists this one of the best Sci-Fi films ever made. Probably cus of it’s seriously committed tone, its exploration of ideas rather than robots blowing one another up. And of course you’ve got all of Tarkovsky’s spiritual iconery: beautifully seraphic women levitating like angels, sonerous use of J.S Bach, the watery world of lakes, rain, mists, the slow lingering of the camera searching significances of the natural world, sudden illuminations of light…etc blah….
But i got bored. Again. There’s always times in Tarkovsky’s films when i’m profoundly bored, and fast-forwarding through the many slow bits, the repetitive bits, the dead bits.
You’ll have to be in a state of devout meditative concentration – for 2 hours! – to watch this. Believing it to be seriously meaningful, spiritually significant.
I don’t have that belief anymore about Tarkovsky. Think i’d prefer to meditate on and in my own world. Listen to those birds outside my bedroom window.
Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia
6/10
