Solyaris (1972)

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Stanislaw Lem (novel)
Fridrikh Gorenshtein (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 March 1972 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence...

Plot Keywords:

Scientist | Psychologist | Ocean | Space Station | Hallucination

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Natalya Bondarchuk	...	Hari
Donatas Banionis	...	Kris Kelvin
Jüri Järvet	...	Dr. Snaut
Vladislav Dvorzhetsky	...	Henri Berton
Nikolai Grinko	...	Kelvin's Father
Anatoli Solonitsyn	...	Dr. Sartorius
Sos Sargsyan	...	Dr. Gibarian (as S. Sarkisyan)
Olga Barnet	...	Kelvin's Mother (as O. Barnet)
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Aunt Anna
Georgi Tejkh	...	Prof. Messenger (as G. Tejkh)
Yulian Semyonov	...	Chairman at Scientific Conference (as Yu. Semyonov)
Olga Kizilova	...	Gibarian's Guest (as O. Kizilova)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vitalik Kerdimun		(as V. Kerdimun)
Tatyana Malykh
Aleksandr Misharin		(as A. Misharin)
Bagrat Oganesyan		(as B. Oganesyan)
V. Statsinsky
Valentina Sumenova		(as V. Sumenova)

Also Known As:

Solaris (UK) (USA)
Солярис (Soviet Union: Russian title)

Runtime:

165 min | Italy:115 min (first release)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

German | Russian

Colour:

Black and White | Colour (Sovcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-G (cable rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | South Korea:15 | UK:A (original rating) | Hong Kong:I | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Akasaka, Minato, Japan

Company:

Creative Unit of Writers & Cinema Workers

Trivia:

It is quite common to hear this film compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), however, Tarkovsky had not seen that film before shooting Solaris. When he did get round to seeing 2001, he criticised it for being "sterile".

Goofs:

Continuity: When Kris is standing in the rain near the beginning of the film the camera tilts down to the table to show a coffee cup and various other items. The cut to the next shot of Kris shows him to have moved (which seems reasonable as a small amount of time has elapsed) but all the items on the table are now in a different configuration.

Quotes:

Hari: Did you ever think of me?
Kris Kelvin: Only when I was sad.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Silent Hill 2 (2001) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ

had to watch it twice

I'm just starting out into the vast world of foreign film and having seen this film on many a video store shelf, and knowing that it was considered a sci-fi classic, I thought it would be a good way to spend an evening. Based on the case I was expecting something along the line of typical American sci-fi. Needless to say I was wrong.

I watched Solyaris twice in two days, because the first time I saw it I knew that I hadn't processed even a quarter of what I knew was there. I was taken completely aback. The second viewing was extremely rewarding.

It was unusual for me, raised as I was on the sledgehammer moralizing and we'll make our point so obvious that there's no way you can miss it because we have no respect for your intelligence way of American film. I'm a huge literature buff, and this was one of the very few films I've confronted that is thoughtful and has so many things to say yet does it in a literary or poetic fashion.

You will get out of this film what you bring to it. I've been to so many movies where the audience is not actually participating, it's being attacked. But true art is not domineering; it woos you.

So to sum up, I greatly appreciated Tarkovsky's unwillingness to manipulate the viewer. It showed that he had respect for me as a thinking soul, and it is this love and respect for humanity which makes this a truly great film.