A glance review of Solaris movie(1972)
“How I forgot western sci-fi and loved the Soviet Union.”
*Spoiler alert*
Suspended crows, high-tech customs, intriguing shuttles, and scientific schemas; are these all you expect from a sci-fi movie? well, forget it all when you watch Solaris (1972). Obsessing the technological concepts of the science-fiction genre, directors have always stopped at the stage of "innovative technologies." However, this is the same element Mr.Tarkovsky points out as the "shallow western works" feature[i]. In fact, they say Tarkovsky's Solaris is a response to the phoniness of 2001: A space odyssey, Stanly Kubrick's masterpiece[ii]. He, however, believes in expressing feelings and ideas about what we have lost, a narrative of the "lost past." That is why he steps on sci-fi to do whatever he wants, no matter what.
As the first movie based on the Solaris novel[iii] by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, the story begins slowly. It describes a situation with a flashback to decades ago, when humankind positioned a space station orbiting Solaris to observe and study this mysterious oceanic planet. Time passed. There are reports about peculiar events following a crow committing suicide. Thus, a space-psychologist-Chris Kelvin, played by Donatas Banionis-is sent to find out whether they should continue this research project. The story circulates this character, and although we began to know him from the first sequences-it takes time for us to know him. Soon, he realized that there were more than three of them in the station-at least a girl who saw around the hall from time to time and a dwarf who tried to escape from one of the crow's cabins. On the second day, he finds his wife alive, lying beside him, who we know has been dead for ten years. Snaut, one of the crows, calls them guests, and Sartorius, a scientist, informs Chris that this is not an ordinary planet. Solaris is an intelligent creature that can read your memories and answer as embodiment humans. The eerie phenomena started when they targeted Solaris with a strong Alfa wave, and it seems Solaris is responding by torturing crows with their past.
This film lacks many extraordinary features in sci-fi. The way Chris comes to the space station is simple-there is not any deafening shuttle. We see Chris's eyes, and then, there he is. None of the crows have any spacesuits; even two of them wear leather jackets (like they want to hang out in a bar). More importantly, people are walking, not suspending. All we can see from the technological aspect is a donate shape hall with walls covered by red and white buttons resembling the soviet space projects in the 60s.
We can see people struggling with their past, and sometimes they forget these are not human, or they are, however, made from neutrons, not atoms, as Sartorius says. The director uses this hyperphysical situation to express his ideas- coming from outside the corrupt modern world and being an embodiment of decline and fall[iv]. Following his symbolistic language, he frequently challenges the audience with questions like, "are you real yourself?", when Chris asks Snaut if these creatures are real. Or "Doesn't a man who's ready to give up his life, just to make cursed contact to know more about it, have the right to get drunk?"-when Chris and Snaut leave the library ceremony. Or when Chris refers to Tolstoy and starts a philosophical conversation with Snaut-on the verge of a new, corruptive activity of Solaris-that "You love which you can lose-yourself, a woman, a homeland. Until today, love was simply unattainable to mankind, to the Earth. Do you understand me, Snaut? There are so few of us. A few billion altogether. A handful!". This symbolic language is understandable when we put it in the context of the intellectual climate in the soviet union in the late 60s.
***
Chris: How old are you?
Snaut: Fifty-two. Why?
-Have long you been here?
-You must have seen my forms.
-I did. Listen, having spent so many years here on the station, do you still feel a clear connection to your life down there?
-You like dire questions. Soon you'll ask me about the meaning of life.
-Wait. Don't be ironic.
-It's a banal question. When a man is happy, the meaning of life and other eternal themes rarely interest him. These questions should be asked at the end of one's life.
-But we don't know when life will end. That's why we're in such a hurry.
-Don't rush. The happiest people are those who are not interested in these cursed questions.
-To ask is always the desire to know. Yet the preservation of simple human truths requires mystery. The mysteries of happiness, death, and love.
-Maybe you're right, but try not to think about all that now. To think about it is to know the day of one's death. Not knowing that day makes us practically immortal.
-Fine, then.
***
Tarkovsky uses long-time shots. It appears in the first sequence, and we see its footprint until the end. Many audiences may feel it is boring; however, it's the way it is. Director wants us to feel the time, and the camera is one of many tools in his hands. There is a constant noisy song on the station. It resembles the new-age ambient electronic pieces in the 70s, where a single song with no more than 2 or 3 variances can bring you deeper and deeper until it involves you. Tarkovsky uses the same music theme in stalker, his other sci-fi movie.
All in all, watching Solaris is a new experience of watching sci-fi which is not equal to any other western's movie. It is always interesting to watch different directors' approaches towards a work of art, especially in the socio-economic context of the soviet union in the 70s. Solaris can familiarize the general cinema audience with the mindset of an artist who lived in a communist society. Interestingly, they are not that different from us, as the mainstream wants us to believe.
