Solaris (1972 film): Difference between revisions
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| isbn = 8-17-046083-2}}</ref> Today ''Solaris'' is widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of Tarkovsky's best works.<ref>{{cite web |
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| ⚫ | In his autobiographical documentary ''[[Voyage in Time]]'' (written a decade after ''Solaris''), Tarkovsky says that he viewed ''Solaris'' as unsuccessful. He says that his goal was to make films "without genre", and that ''Solaris'', even with its minimal technical dialogue and special effects, was unable to escape the genre of [[science fiction]], unlike his later film ''[[Stalker (film)|Stalker]]'', which he felt succeeded in circumventing the standard constraints of the genre. |
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==Differences with the novel== |
==Differences with the novel== |
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Revision as of 05:43, 19 January 2008
| Solaris (1972) | |
|---|---|
 Soviet poster | |
| Directed by | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Written by | Fridrikh Gorenshtein Andrei Tarkovsky based on the novel by Stanisław Lem |
| Produced by | Viacheslav Tarasov |
| Starring | Natalya Bondarchuk Donatas Banionis Jüri Järvet Vladislav Dvorzhetsky Nikolai Grinko Anatoly Solonitsyn |
| Cinematography | Vadim Yusov |
| Edited by | Lyudmila Feiginova |
| Music by | Eduard Artemyev |
Release dates | May 13, 1972 (Cannes Film Festival, France) February 5, 1973 (USSR) |
Running time | 165 min |
| Country |  USSR |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | RUR 1,000,000 (estimated) |
Solaris (Russian: Солярис, Solyaris) is a 1972 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is based on the novel Solaris by Polish science fiction author Stanisław Lem. The film features Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet, Nikolai Grinko and Anatoly Solonitsyn and has a soundtrack by Eduard Artemyev.
Solaris is a meditative psychodrama that is set mostly on a space station in orbit around the planet-like object called Solaris. The scientific mission on the space station has fallen into a crisis. Psychologist Kris Kelvin travels to the station to evaluate and explore the situation, but soon experiences the same hallucinations that have befallen the other crew members. The film concentrates on the thoughts and the conscience of man, and is a "drama of grief and partial recovery". Solaris and its complex and slow storytelling has sometimes been compared to Western science fiction films, which rely on special effects and an imagined version of the future.[1]
Solaris was a critical success and is widely regarded as one of Tarkovsky's best works. The film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury and the FIPRESCI prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Another film adaption of the novel by Stanisław Lem was released in 2002 under the name Solaris, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Plot
The film opens with psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) walking in the land around his father's house, the day before he is to leave for the space station orbiting the remote, liquid-covered, planet-like object called Solaris. After decades of study, the scientific mission there has made little progress in understanding its subject, and has fallen into crisis. Kelvin is being sent to evaluate the situation and determine the future of the outpost.
A former pilot named Burton (Vladislav Dvorzhetsky) is visiting. Together they watch footage of hearings many years before, in which Burton recounted seeing a bizarrely huge child on the surface of Solaris during a search for two missing scientists. His craft's cameras having only recorded clouds and the serene surface, his claims were dismissed as hallucinations. After unsuccessfully trying to convince Kelvin of the truth of his experience Burton leaves angrily, only to call from his car to say that later he met the child of one of the scientists and that excepting its size, it was the same one he'd seen. In an extended sequence, Burton drives with his son through the streets of a busy, foreign city. Kelvin burns most of his old papers in a bonfire before leaving, remarking on how much he had kept.
Arriving at Solaris after his journey, Kelvin is not met by any of the three remaining scientists, and finds the space station in dangerous neglect and disarray. He searches them out, finding that his friend Dr. Gibarian (Sos Sargsyan) has died mysteriously and the remaining two offer only unhelpful and confusing information. Shortly after being advised by Dr. Snaut (Jüri Järvet) not to overreact if he sees anything unusual, he begins to catch glimpses of other people on the station. He begins his investigation against the backdrop of the slowly boiling, mercurial surface of Solaris.
Waking from an exhausted sleep, Kelvin finds a woman in his quarters with him despite his barricaded door. It is his wife, Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk). She seems as puzzled by her appearance as he. Realizing she is an apparition of some sort, he lures her into his spacecraft and launches her into space, being caught by the rocket's blast in his haste. Dr. Snaut tends his burns, opening up more now that Kelvin is sharing their experiences. The scientists promote a plan of beaming Kelvin's brainwave patterns at Solaris, in hopes that it will understand them and stop trying to communicate with its disturbing apparitions, and Dr. Sartorius (Anatoli Solonitsyn) is dissuaded from his more radical plan to attack it by bombarding it with heavy radiation.
That evening Hari reappears in his room. He is calmer, holding her through the night. When he wakes he attempts to hide the duplicate clothes left by her predecessor, but when he leaves the room she panics, beating her way through the metal door and badly cutting herself. He carries her to his bed, where her injuries heal in front of his eyes. In discussion with the scientists, they both begin to understand that Solaris has created her from his memories of her. She is not human, but has thoughts and feelings; Kelvin introduces her to the others as his wife, and insists that they treat her with respect. Dr. Sartorius explains that the "visitors" began appearing after the scientists attracted Solaris's attention with their first surveys, they are made of neutrinos, and it may be possible to destroy them.
Kelvin shows Hari films of himself and his parents when he was a boy, and, later, herself. As time passes she becomes more independent, able to be out of sight of him. From Snaut she learns that the original Hari had committed suicide ten years earlier, and Kelvin tells her the whole story. She kills herself again outside of his quarters by drinking liquid oxygen, only to painfully, spasmodically return to life a few minutes later. The surface of Solaris has become agitated. Kelvin falls into a fevered sleep, dreaming of his mother and many Haris walking around his room. When he recovers she is gone, and Snaut reads him a note she left, in which she explains that she herself asked the scientists to destroy her.
Snaut informs Kelvin that since they broadcast Kelvin's brainwaves at Solaris, islands have begun forming on its surface. Kelvin debates whether to return to Earth or to stay on Solaris in the hope of reconnecting with that which was loved and has been lost. He is then seen back on the shore of the frozen pond beside his father's house. His dog runs toward him and he walks happily toward it, but his face falls when he sees that something is wrong: water is falling inside the house and though his father (Nikolai Grinko) is inside he seems unaware of it. They embrace on the front step. The camera draws back; the house, lake and surrounding land is revealed to be on an island, floating on the surface of Solaris.
Cast
Principal cast
- Hari ..... Natalya Bondarchuk
- Kris Kelvin ..... Donatas Banionis
- Dr Snaut ..... Jüri Järvet
- Henri Burton ..... Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
- Kris Kelvin's Father ..... Nikolai Grinko
- Dr Sartorius ..... Anatoli Solonitsyn
- Dr Gibarian ..... Sos Sargsyan
- Kris Kelvin's Mother ..... Olga Barnet
Casting
Initially Tarkovsky wanted his ex-wife Irma Raush for the role of Hari. After meeting Swedish actress Bibi Andersson in June 1970 Tarkovsky began to consider Andersson for the role of Hari. Andersson was willing to work for Tarkovsky, even accepting being paid in Ruble. In end Natalya Bondarchuk was choosen for the role of Hari. He also considered Russian actress Alla Demidova for the role of Kelvin's Mother, but ultimately choose Olga Barnet.[2]
Tarkovsky choose Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis for the role of Kris Kelvin, Estonian actor Jüri Järvet for the role of Dr Snaut, and Russian actor Anatoly Solonitsyn for the role of Dr Sartorius. Tarkovsky had already worked with Anatoly Solonitsyn, as he had played the title role in Andrei Rublev. Later, after film had been almost completed, Tarkovsky rated the actors and their perfomance in the following order: Bondarchuk, Järvet, Solonitsyn, Banionis, Dvorzhetsky and Grinko. Natalya Bondarchuk was Tarkovsky's favorite of the film, as he wrote in his diary that "Natalya B. has outshone everybody".[3]
Production
Writing
Tarkovsky was an admirer of Lem's work and avid reader of his books. This was the starting point for developing the screenplay based on the novel Solaris. Tarkovsky worked together with Lem and with screenwriter Fridrikh Gorenshtein when developing the screenplay. Tarkovsky developed several screenplay variants. Several screenplay variants were developend. In one variant, for example, almost half of the film took place on Earth, concentrating on the previous history of Hari and Kris Kelvin's relationship with her.[4]
Tarkovsky decided to feature a choral prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach and several paintings of old masters in the film. The interior of the spaceship contains full-size reproductions of Brueghel's Months paintings. Details of The Fall of Icarus and The Hunters in the Snow are displayed in the film. The reason for this was that for Tarkovsky cinema was a very young art. He tried to create in the viewer's subconscious a historic perspective into the depth of the centuries, such that the viewers would think of cinema as an old art.[5]
Shooting
The project was approved in the summer of 1970 by the State Committee for Cinematography, and allowed to have a length of 4000 metres corresponding to two hours and twenty minutes. Tarkovsky planned to shot the outdoor scenes of the film in Zvenigorod near Moscow and in Japan. The indoor scenes were to be shot at Mosfilm. The scene of Burton driving through the city were to be shot in Japan, but were only reluctantly approved by the film committee.
Shooting started in March 1970. Vadim Yusov was the cinematographer, as in Tarkovsky's previous films. The two had frequent arguments on the set,[6] and the two would not work together again after Solaris. Shooting in Japan took place in September and October 1970. The scenes were shot in Akasaka and Iikura in Tokyo.[7] Filming finished and a first version of the film was completed in December 1971. In January 1972 the State Committee for Cinematography requested several changes before allowing Solaris to be released, a request that infuriated Tarkovsky. After some minor alterations the film was finally approved in March.[8]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Solaris features a combination of Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale prelude for organ, "Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (BWV 639) and an electronic score by composer Eduard Artemyev. The choral prelude for organ is heard four times throughout the film. Tarkovsky was an admirer of Bach's music and choose the choral prelude as the central theme for the earth.
The electronic score has been written by Artemyev for the film. Artemyev met Tarkovsky in 1970 at the house of Mikhail Romadin, who would become the production designer for Solaris. Initially Tarkovsky did not want music in his film, and asked Artemyev to simply orchestrate the natural ambient sounds. Artemyev proposed to introduce orchestral sounds in a subtle way, almost inaudible to audience. As a counterpoint to the classical earth theme he wrote an electronic theme for the planet Solaris. This theme was fluid and diverse, as if coming from nowhere. He also wrote an additional subtheme, that was based on Bach's music as a cantus firmus, with his own composition on top. This subtheme was used in the scene of Hari's death and in the finale.[9]
Reception
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury and the FIPRESCI prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film premiered in the Soviet Union on February 5, 1973 at the film theater Mir in Moscow.[10] Today Solaris is widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of Tarkovsky's best works.[11]
In his autobiographical documentary Voyage in Time (written a decade after Solaris), Tarkovsky says that he viewed Solaris as unsuccessful. He says that his goal was to make films "without genre", and that Solaris, even with its minimal technical dialogue and special effects, was unable to escape the genre of science fiction, unlike his later film Stalker, which he felt succeeded in circumventing the standard constraints of the genre.
Differences with the novel
Although Tarkovsky's film is fairly faithful to the book by Stanisław Lem, Lem was dissatisfied with the finished film as he said "I never really liked Tarkovsky's version".[12] To Tarkovsky, who was an admirer of Lem's work, this showed that Lem was not understanding the nature of cinema as an art. According to Tarkovsky, Lem expected the screenplay and the film to merely illustrate the novel, without creating something new and of artistic value of its own. Tarkovsky worked together with Lem (and with Fridrikh Gorenshtein) when developing the screenplay, resulting in some conflicts between the two. Lem was opposed to any divergence between the original novel and the screenplay. Tarkovsky on the other side was more interested in creating a film only based on the novel, but ultimately standing on its own. He wanted a spiritual film about inner life, whereas Lem's novel was about the conflict of man and the cosmos. For Tarkovsky this conflict was merely a vehicle to describe the inner life of the protagonists.[13]
In the book, Lem describes the inability of human science to properly handle a truly alien life form that is beyond human understanding, while Tarkovsky focuses on Kelvin's feelings towards his wife and the human condition in space exploration (Tarkovsky turns Gibarian's monologue from chapter six of the book into a highlight of the final library scene, in a line which Snouth delivers: "We don't need other worlds. We need mirrors"). Unlike the novel, which begins with Kelvin's spaceflight, Tarkovsky illustrates Kelvin's visit to his parents' house in the countryside prior to his departure, thus creating a contrast with the cold, sterile and alienating atmosphere of the Solaris station and questioning the concept of space exploration and its impact on the human psyche in general.
References
- ^ Lopate, Phillip. "Solaris". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Tarkovsky, Andrei (1991). Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986. Calcutta: Seagull Books. pp. 5 (June 13, June 15 & July 11, 1970). ISBN 8-17-046083-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Tarkovsky, Andrei (1991). Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986. Calcutta: Seagull Books. pp. 44-45 (December 4, 1970). ISBN 8-17-046083-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Illg, Jerzy (1987). "Z Andriejem Tarkowskim rozmawiają Jerzy Illg, Leonard Neuger". Res Publica. 1. Warsaw: 137–160.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Eduard Artemyev. Eduard Artemyev Interview (DVD). Criterion Collection.
- ^ Tarkovsky, Andrei (1991). Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986. Calcutta: Seagull Books. pp. 38-39 (July 12 & August 10, 1970). ISBN 8-17-046083-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Yuji, Kikutake. "Solaris locations in Akasaka and Iikura, Tokyo". Retrieved 2008-01-15.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Tarkovsky, Andrei (1991). Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986. Calcutta: Seagull Books. pp. 49-55 (January 12 & March 31, 1972). ISBN 8-17-046083-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Eduard Artemyev. Eduard Artemyev Interview (DVD). Criterion Collection.
- ^ Tarkovsky, Andrei (1991). Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986. Calcutta: Seagull Books. pp. 67-70 (January 29, 1973). ISBN 8-17-046083-2.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Georgaris, Bill. "The Top 100 Films". They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Lem, Stanisław. "Solaris". Retrieved 2008-01-14.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Illg, Jerzy (1987). "Z Andriejem Tarkowskim rozmawiają Jerzy Illg, Leonard Neuger". Res Publica. 1. Warsaw: 137–160.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
External links