Solaris 1972 Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Solaris 1972

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Soviet cinema is a different beast from the capitalist cinema that I grew up with. Where as in the western world, film companies are private entities striving to capture large masses of an audience on an increasingly international stage for profit. Soviet cinema was a government enterprise and considered a very important one at that. Lenin would argue that film was the idea medium and art form to spread the Soviet message and ensure the masses received the right ideological education. In 1924, the State Committee for Cinema (also called Goskino) was founded and it would exist in one form or another, with many name changes over the years right up to 2008. It's purpose was to not only create and fund Soviet movies but to ensure the right kind of movies were made. Now the level of censorship and control would wax and wane over the the years, the Stalin years saw a tight grip being used while in the 1960s and 1970s, controls were looser. Directors, actors and other staff were basically government employees but often were allowed to present ideas and write their own scripts for approval. It was in this environment that Director Andrei Tarkovsky decided to create the 2^nd film version of Solaris.

Andrei Tarkovsky was born in 1932 and had an eventual and if we're going to be honest an unstable childhood. Not only did he have to evacuate ahead of Nazi armies, his father would leave the family and he would suffer through a year long bout with tuberculosis. In school he was a bit of troublemaker and considered a poor student. Despite this he still graduated and enrolled at the Oriental Institute study Arabic but dropped out after a year to become a prospector for the Academy of Science. During this he participated in a year long research expedition into the wilderness, where he decided he would study film. He was admitted into the film directing program in 1954, in the same class as his first wife, who he would divorce in 1970. His first film Ivan's Childhood was released in 1962 and achieved acclaim. His second film would run into a lot of trouble as he would struggle with the censors but eventually a cut version was released. Solaris was his third film and while it also would have some trouble with censors (who wanted among other things to edit out all references to God or religion in the movie but he resisted them. Let's go ahead and discuss the film.

Solaris the film takes place on Earth and in the orbit of the planet Solaris. Like the book it is about Dr. Kris Kelvin's experiences on the station orbiting Solaris. It's a long movie, with the first hour honestly being the slowest paced of the film (Mr. Tarkovsky stated this was on purpose to get the “idiots” out the theater) and it's about 3 hours long. Events pick up rapidly once Dr. Kelvin reaches the station with the movie doing a good job of showing the surreal atmosphere of the place and what's it like to walk into an insane situation. The other scientist are shown as being under amazing stress, often acting erratically. At first Dr. Kelvin is critical of their behavior but with the appearance of his dead wife Hari, he swiftly becomes stressed and emotional himself. This often results in clashes with the other 2 scientists, especially Sartorius, who repeatedly insists that Hari isn't real. This provoked some discussion among my friends who were kind enough to watch the film with me. My own thought was that Hari clearly wasn't human, not in the biological sense but that was frankly irrelevant to the fact that she was a person. Like in the book, Hari is an independent agent, she has no idea why she has been sent here or what has sent her. Only that she is here now with memories and emotions of her own and the ability to grow in her abilities. Given her awareness of herself, her ability to have thoughts, emotions and desires her origin doesn't matter to me when we are determining if she is a person. Let me explain there a bit, when I say person, I mean a thinking (sapient), feeling being who deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. Someone deserving of rights if you will. Currently that really only applies to humans but I think we are being arrogant if we proclaim that all persons must be human. An artificial intelligence, would be a person, as would an alien, as long as they were sapient. The cinematography is often amazing with many well framed shots and interesting if slow pans across the scenery. The result is a slowly paced, philosophical film that lets us watch Dr. Kelvin slowly fall apart as he struggles to reconcile his guilt over his wife's death, his love for the Hari on the station and his fear of losing her.

Now as usual I am going to give two grades to the film. The first is the grade as an adaptation and the second as a stand alone story. As an adaptation I have to point out the many changes made. In the film a much greater focus is given to Dr. Kelvin's feelings and the psychological elements of the story, where the novel devoted a good deal of space to discussing the scientific history of the research into Solaris, the film glosses over it. Addition changes are made by adding scenes on Earth and examining Dr. Kelvin's relationship with his father, who will likely die while he is in space. The space station is used to present a view of the impact of space exploration on the human psyche. In fact the original draft of the script had two thirds of the film happening on Earth, which made Lem furious. The film still has a good chunk of the first hour taking place on Earth. A much greater focus is given to Hari, letting her argue her case that she is a person even if she is not human against the disbelieving Sartorius. Now, most of these changes are to make it a better film but they are still really deep changes, so I have to give Solaris a C- as an adaptation. That said as a stand alone film, Solaris while long and slow is a thoughtful movie that tells the story of the novel in a way that works much better for me. I didn't expect to like the film more then the book, so I'm giving the 1972 Solaris film an A.  This movie isn't going to be for everyone, there's no action, it's in Russian and 3 hours long.  But if you're willing to try it out, you might find some surprising food for thought. 

Next week we're going non-fiction with Judith Herrin Byzantium, the Surprising life of a Medieval Empire. Keep reading.