Solaris
Tarkovskij didn't like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, made just a few years before. Tarkovskij's SF, Solaris (1972), is both different and similar to 2001. Like 2001 the takes are very long and the tempo of the film is slow. Despite this, and despite the almost 3 hours, the film never becomes boring. It is very intense and powerful and the long takes and slow tempo have a function. I watched Soderbergh's remake of Solaris first, and the original is far better (though, Soderbergh's film is not bad, especially the soundtrack is splendid). One difference compared to 2001 is the scale: while 2001 deals with mankind and cosmic evolution, Solaris deals with humans and their memories. Also we here have the question (as in Blade Runner) of what being human is about; the "guests" vreated by the alien consciousness seems to become more and more humanlike the more memories they develop. Just like the replicant's in Blade Runner, and just like Rachel, Hari tries to convince the scientists of her being a real human.

Greatest Sci-Fi Film
Tarkovsky's reinvention of the science fiction genre remains perhaps the greatest science fiction film ever made. Psychologist Kris Kelvin, leaving behind nature and his family home and burning his guilt in a bonfire, encounters his dead wife in a space station orbiting the ocean of materialized memories and consciousness which is Solaris. This is a film about lost love, remembrance of things past, and the meaning of life which will haunt you in the deepest philosophical and emotional sense.

Like Stalker, a masterwork
I had seen Solaris in German TV in 1982 and never found it again. Then I was fascinated by it. When I had seen a few month back Solaris with George Clooney, I wondered whether I would find Tarkovskies Solaris at Amazon - and there it was and I bought it. Comparing both, I found them both good.
Tarkovski did marvelous works of which I like most Solaris and Stalker.

Solaris - Criterion Collection
Original Russian film - restored. Film is amazing! Much better than the recent remake with Clooney. Very true to the novel, engrossing and visually stimulating. The restoration is very well done and a pleasure to watch. Recommend this to serious Lem fans as well as movie buffs.

Solaris is Visionary.
I rediscovered the genius of this cult film several nights ago on the IFC channel. Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky is best known for Solaris and Stalker. Not surprisingly, Solaris (1972) is often compared to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 - A Space Odyssey. Because the two have much in common as film experiences, they share the same cult following. Both films involve a transforming encounter in space with a greater intelligence. In 2001 the journey is outward; in Solaris the journey is inward. Based on the Stanislaw Lem novel of the same name, Solaris tells the story of a space station (in orbit around a remote, planet-like object called Solaris) that has fallen into a crisis and the crew members are all hallucinating. Psychologist/ cosmonaut Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) travels to the station to assess the situation, but soon begins experiencing the same hallucinations. When his late wife, Khari (18-year old Natalya Bondarchuk), unexpectedly appears on the station, Kelvin wonders if she is instead a space apparition or a memory. This is a sublime, visionary experience in film. (Skip the 2002 Soderbergh/George Clooney remake, which lacks Tarkovsky's vision, which is the real genius of Solaris.)

The two-disc Criterion edition includes a new digital transfer, an audio essay by Tarkovsky scholars Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, co-authors of The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue, new and improved English subtitle translation, nine deleted and alternate scenes, video interviews with lead actress Natalya Bondarchuk, cinematographer Vadim Yusov, art director Mikhail Romadin, and composer Eduard Artemyev, and a documentary excerpt with Solaris author Stanislaw Lem.

G. Merritt