Solaris (1972)

(Originally released as: Solyaris)

Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Juri Jarvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, Nikolai Grinko

First, the Lowdown: A scientist travels to an alien world, and finds his dead wife.

At the banks of a silent brook stands a man. His name is Kris Kelvin – a “Solarist”. He studies the data that is currently being gathered from a far off planet, called Solaris. But Kris's work has tapered off some, every day he takes a walk around the forests outside his father's house. A car approaches the house carrying Burton, another Solarist, and his son.

Burton has a tape of a recorded statement he gave to the investigating counsel over ten years ago about Solaris. A scientific party landed on the planet and began surveying its vast ocean lead by a Dr. Fechner. They never returned. The remaining scientific crew sent out a search party to look for the missing men, all returned in a timely manner except for one helicopter – piloted by Burton. An hour after nightfall, Burton's helicopter returned. Once back on the station, Burton immediately ran to his quarters and refused to leave. Eventually, he relaxed a little, but refused to look out any windows looking out over the ocean. While on his search mission, Burton became trapped in a fog. Looking down at the planet's surface, he noticed that all tidal activity had stopped and that islands appeared to form on the water's surface. Islands with acacias and flowers which quickly dissolved. Burton tried to record this activity, but all the camera would pick up were cloud formations. Later Burton found a body floating in the ocean, with another figure next to it. The other figure was a child, that looked like Fechner's son – only 14 feet tall. The counsel felt that Burton's experience was more hallucination brought about by fatigue, illness, or the magnetic waves that Solaris has been known to put out (and are theorized to be thought patterns.)

Solaristics as a science is in jeopardy – the mountain of data is disjointed and incoherent. The original research staff of 80 has been pared down to three – and their sporadic reports are even more confusing. The counsel is on the brink of closing off all Solaris research permanently, so Burton has asked Kelvin to go to Solaris and evaluate the situation. Kelvin is reluctant to leave, however, as his elderly father is sick with a terminal illness and may not live out the year. Furthermore, Kris knows that the counsel only wants a justification to shut the research station down, but also feels that Solaritics is at a stalemate because of irresponsible daydreaming. It is Kelvin's own father, though, that insists he go – instead on brooding over his research here on earth.

Kelvin arrives a the station and finds no one is there to greet him, let alone guide his spacecraft in for a landing. The station corridors are a mess, instruments are in poor repair, and of the three men stationed only two remain – Snaut and Sartorius. The third scientist, Gilbarian, killed himself. Kelvin finds Snaut in his quarters, singing. Something in Snaut's hammock is making it sway back and forth. Before Kris can say anything, Snaut hurredly tells him to settle into quarters of his own and return in the morning.

In Gilbarian's quarters, Kris finds a recorded message left for him. In it a distressed Gilbarian talks about Sartorius's decision to bombard the Solaris ocean with radiation. To which the planet reacted with magnetic waves of its own. Wanting further answers, Kelvin seeks out Sartorius at his quarters, but he too tells him to come back tomorrow.

In the corridor, Kelvin sees a young girl. But when he tries following her, she disappears. He approaches Snaut about this occurrance, but Snaut tells him to relax. Frustrated, Kelvin returns to Gilbarian's message to finish watching it – and sees the young girl from the corridor come into the frame. Gilbarian shoves her out of the way and tells says that her presence is not madness, but something to do with consciousness.

Kris beds down for the night and wakes up at dawn to find a young woman, Hari - his wife who had committed suicide 10 years ago. She kisses him awake, but he soon realizes that he's now dreaming and panics. Especially since he blocked the door shut. So no one could get in. Hari tells Kris that she feels like she has forgotten something.

Still unnerved by the apparition of his dead wife, Kris tries to leave the room, but Hari protests. Under the pretense of leaving the station together, Kris lures Hari into a rocket and launches it (nearly incinerating himself in the process). Snaut finds Kelvin in his quarters and tells him that the “guests” that have been plaguing the station appeared after probing the ocean with x-rays. He also tells Kelvin that it doesn't matter how he tries to dispose of Hari, she will come back. Desperate to leave the station, Kelvin asks Snaut if he would sign a report to liquidate the station. Snaut demurs because of the possibility of finally making complete contact with the alien consciousness of Solaris.

The next evening, Hari returns to Kelvin's room.

This movie has been called “Russia's answer to 2001” and it's understandable. Where Kubrick's 2001 was about transcending the fetters of tools so that one's consciousness may evolve, Solaris emphasizes loosening one's sense of duty so that one's heart may transcend. It's a pretty powerful statement to make in the Soviet Union at that time, Kruschev was hardlining the benefits of duty to society, so to have a filmmaker call that into question back then was a pretty bold step. Like 2001, Solaris takes a pretty languid pace (almost TOO languid for some, its running time is almost three hours). Unlike, 2001, it is not terribly effects heavy. Most of the budget seemed to go towards the set of the Solaris research platform itself which looks very utilitarian.

As I mentioned before, the problem most people have with this movie is its running time. Tartakovsky seems to take his time moving from scene to scene. In many ways his filming style is almost too observational – scenes linger on background minutiae much like one would if they were watching the same situation. (Think about how often your eyes wander everywhere during the course of the day.) Unlike most people, I rather like the way the movie is paced because it allows the weight of everything that is said to sink in. (Plus it's relieving to watch a film where you aren't going to be constantly bombard with “Oooh! Check out the special effects!” montages.)

Line of the movie: “They come at night. But one must sleep sometime.”

Five stars. Stay off the moors.