Listen and you will see

This is one of those masterpieces we, humble observers, are hesitant to judge. Of course, tongue wouldn't turn to point out those weak sides that great god Andei Tarkovsky allowed. But did he?

I, as a common cinema lover, perceived this piece of art as one of those that make you think. Think about our existence, about role of art in our lives, role of forgiveness and tolerance, role of being a Human.

It is considered that Tarkovsky's Solaris is inferior in many respects to Lem's Solaris. To my great disgrace, I have not read the book, thus cannot compare. But well, the movie managed to become one of those few that make me want to read the original. While working on a thesis in the field of scientific fiction literature, I just managed to read a couple of Herbert Wells and Isaac Asimov. But Solaris was so stunning and hypnotic, that it couldn't be anything less, but worth investigating and wanting more.

People tend to think they have been on the Earth for ever, they are eternal and blah. Nevertheless, the movie points out how tiny we are in our Universe. Our civilization is just a little island in the ocean of Solaris, our lives are just someone's memories lost in time and space. Constant desire of the mankind to learn and comprehend the incomprehensible turns out as a failure, the same as portrayed in Babylon by Bruegel. Tarkovsky masterfully depicts the role of art in human development. The most striking scene was the one of weightlessness. Accompanied with the prelude of Bach, with floating books and candles, symbols of light and knowledge, this scene becomes the key one in the line of art representation.

Of course, it is impossible to bypass the role of Hari, protagonist's deceased wife. In the beginning she appears as a memory, drawn from Kris's head. But with time, she becomes a separate creature, and her words "This is not me! It is me, not Hari!" show how much her understanding of being a human changed. Observing people in the picture "Hunters in the snow" she learns that she is one... and it is not important what material she is made of. She feels, she loves, she lives! And she forgives cruel words of scientists. She, being forgetful, serves as an example of a high "quality" human, though she is not one physically.

Forgiveness is another indispensable trait of a person to which the last scenes are devoted. Kris's parents accept him and forgive his mistakes in the past. Kris turns to his roots, which is the result of thinking on the station near Solaris. Now, he became a wiser person, and hopefully a better son. Tarkovsky shows their reunion using another classical masterpiece - The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Everything seems to be on the right place. Human values are determined, mistakes are forgotten, men turn to their origins. But!.. we are still on the island in the ocean of suspense.

Director Andrei Tarkovsky +10
Actors' performance (Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis) +10
Plot (Stanislaw Lem, Andrei Tarkovsky, Freidrich Gorenstein) +10
Camera Vadim Yusov +10
Music Eduard Aremyev +10

It's none of your business but I'm listening to

Liars - Sailing to Byzantium