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

De Te Fabula Narratur

What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves!

Act V, sc. viii

The genre of cyberpunk, without a doubt, came from the West. And, of course, without any doubt, Westerners would never think that a good cyberpunk movie can be created in such a country as Soviet Union. Why not though?

Georgi Daneliya created Kin-Dza-Dza which was unfortunately accepted by masses only as an extravagant prank of a talanted director. Practice shows that people tend to accept things as they are, omitting inner substance, signs and allegories. The movie on its own is full of symbols showing the comical similarity of the Pluke civilization to our own life.

"Patsak" - "Katsap" in reverse, which is an offensive name for Russians in Ukraine. Patsaks work for Chatlanians, who turn out to be just people having money, chatles.

"KeTse" - "TsK" in reverse, which is an abbreviation for Central Committee (highest administrative body in USSR). Both KeTse (which are simple matches in our life) and TsK symbolise power in the country. Whoever posesses KeTse possesses crimson pants - the symbol of respect and authority.

"Tsappa" - "TsAp" which is an abbriviation for central apparatus (central office). A very prominent conversation shows authors' attitude to it. Chatlanian Wef asks to repair Tsappa. And earthling Uncle Vova asks which is Tsappa. Wef replies "- The rusty detail. - But everything here is rusty. - This one is the MOST rusty." The authors impy that Central Apparatus is the oldest and the most worn out detail in the whole body of the government.

"Ecilop" - "Police" which is in no need for explanations...

The spritual poverty of the Plukanians is shown through the prism of art, which is money oriented. Contemporary pop culture is similar: compare meaningless love songs to the wild rasping on the violin in Kin-Dza-Dza Galaxy. People come to the art in the thirst for money, not being moved by their inner motives. "Workers" of art are purely random.

But not only art is being abandoned. Take a look at our language: curse words are spreading immensly and we substitute all our words with so-called "Ku". General cultural decadence on Pluke is blinded by the ligts of the high tech developments: spaceships, lasers, time machines and elaborate underground cities. However, this is not a proof of a highly developed society. Degradating minds, lack of spiritual power, hunger for money turned Pluke into a miserable and gruesome place which the Earth may turn into one day as well.

The movie is surely political satire. But without the planet Alpha it would stay just a bitter irony over modern state of things. Instead, authors split the evil into two types. The first one, low, coward, lustful and dirty is the Pluke civilization. But much worse is the Alpha: the world of endless pride, arogance and snobism. Alpha is a great depiction of outer welfare in connection with inner indifference and emptiness. This reminds me of the levels in hell in Dante's Divine Comedy. And Alpha stands much further away from Pluke in its sinfulness.

A trully sad and tragic movie.

Director Georgi Danelia +10
Actors' performance (Yuriy Yakovlev, Evgeni Leonov, Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze) +10
Plot (Georgi Danelia, Revaz Gabriadze) +10
Camera Pavel Lebeshev +10
Music Giya Kancheli +8

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

Giya Kancheli - Eine Kleine Daneliada